Life and soul…

I drive past a funeral parlour on my way home every evening and I sometimes have to stop outside in a queue of traffic. I often look at the poster offering a funeral plan to pay in advance for the services provided by the Undertakers, prior to the inevitable.
As part of the service I wonder if they have ever thought of offering a pre-death wake party that one could attend in person, the walking dead as it were.

Funeral parlours, as with turf accountancy premises, now support clear glass windows, which funnily enough does not entice me into either building, for the foreseeable future; although I am not taking bets on that.

I have often wondered who would attend my wake and how I would be perceived as a person and their thoughts on the way I have lived my life. No matter how well you know someone you can never really know what they think about you; inevitably, you will always see yourself different to how others see you. I have a clear idea about whom I would like to invite to my funeral and, should they wish to do so, say a few words at the service; most of them I would love to be the women I have crossed paths with during the course of my life, friends, colleagues, lovers, wife(s), partners, daughters. I do not intend having any religious connotations, as I do not believe I will be going on anywhere else once I am dead. [It would be fun to be looking up at whom ever had bothered to show up to ‘see’ me off]

If there were any outstanding business that someone wished to have resolved whilst I was still alive then it could be settled and carried out all above board.
If my family asked why I had to die I could then try to explain and soften the blow; which many do not get the chance to do, especially those that die suddenly.

I have been fortunate to have, thus far, beaten Cancer on two occasions and I have just carried on my life as normal as possible thereafter. I have no desire to have my wake in the immediate future therefore I can only stand back in awe at the bravery shown by Andy Fitchett and hope those that have touched his life and will be attending his wake give him the strength to see through his wishes to celebrate his life.

Oh yea, and just for the record, at my own wake I would probably say ‘Yea, he could be an awkward sod at the best of times’.

[This blog comment was prompted after reading this article on the Andy Fitchett, to whom I send my best wishes for his wake]