Flowers

I posted the following to my other blog a few days ago, but thought I’d put it here as a reminder:

One of my two aunts died around this time last year. I’m not good with dates generally, so I don’t recall exactly when, but I realized today that I will always have a reminder. She was staggeringly active in the community; the vicar read out a list of things she was involved with that had people in the congregation laughing because it was so long. She was, amongst that list, part of a group of ladies that provided flower arrangements for the church. This reflected both the role of the church in her life, but on a practical level showed her love for gardening. She was buried on the first Thursday of Lent, when adornments such as flowers would not be acceptable in the church. I believe the verger raised this issue, only to be told very firmly by the remainder of the ‘flower ladies’ that there would indeed be flowers in the church that day, of a scale and grace rarely seen in the village.

I’ll add that Songs of Praise itself has probably not generated a fuller church than on that day. It’s not a big church, but that didn’t stop the sight of people standing in the aisles from making an impression on me. To have so many people turn up on a Thursday, particularly those who had travelled long distances, was a great tribute, as was the presence of several of Sam and Jon’s friends. It’s to be hoped that Dorothy knew how much she was loved.