Celebrating Phil's life

Yesterday our family, relatives and friends gathered at Mum's parish church to farewell Phil. I wish he had been there to see it. It was a fitting tribute to our loved one, to their friend.

The service was lovely, the hymns were sung beautifully and the readings were appropriate. Mark did a fine job reading the eulogy and although he was emotional, he managed to keep it together.

After the cemetary we gathered back at Mum's place and enjoyed each other's company as we shared our memories, thoughts and feelings. I found myself tuning out for a few seconds every now and then and wishing that Phil was there because, after all, this was all for him. He would have been overwhelmed.

One by one the the visitors left. They complimented Mum on the service, they shared a story, some made a promise to keep in touch. Eventually it was just us - the family. We talked about the day, read the names in the memorial book and looked through a few photos. We talked about relatives that we hadn't seen for a while and friends who had travelled a distance to be here.

After a light meal and reassurances from Mum that she was OK we too started to leave. We felt Phil's presence as we hugged each other tightly and a little longer than usual - his energy was all around us.

He's left us with a powerful message - a promise to stay united as a family, to stay in touch and to say regularly how much we mean to each other.

Today I want to say again ..... life is good.