Waving Goodbye

On Friday I went to funeral.  It was for the mother of a very old friend.  We go back to when we first went to school at five years old.  That's a good many years ago.  Her mother was over 90 and had lost her hearing.  It was difficult to communicate with her in her final years.  But I have a lovely memory of the last time I saw her.  I followed my friend into her flat and she clearly wasn't sure who I was.  When she was told I watched her face light up and she opened her arms and gave me a great big hug.

Funerals are grim, sad affairs.  My friend told me that they had talked about it, and she said her mother wanted her departure to be more cheerful than that.  She asked to be played out to the strains of "Wish me Luck as you Wave me Goodbye."  There was not a dry eye in the house, but we were all smiling too.