It’s your funeral
3 March 2010
I’m not much worried about what happens to my body after I die.
If death is the end I won’t be worrying about it, and if there is an afterlife I will probably be busy elsewhere.
I have made a plan for my funeral though.
I think my family and friends will have enough to cope with, without trying to dredge their brains for what hymns or songs or readings I might like.
Having said that my funeral is for them, not for me: I’ve made a plan to save them the effort, but if they want to do something different that is fine by me.
I would rather like the song ‘Ballad of Serenity‘ by Josh Whedon to be played because it means to me that however ill I get, I still have the freedom of my imagination.
Because it was one of my favourite school hymns and because of my love of writing and painting fantasy I would like one of the hymns to be ‘When a Knight Won his Spurs.’
Another song/hymn I learned at school is ‘Judas and Mary‘ which reminds us that the most important thing to give is love.
The most important thing that gets me through the inconveniences of my illness, is the love and care of my friends, from the nearby friends in Shropshire who drop everything to go and buy me ice lollies when I am too nauseous to drink, to the online friends, in Shropshire, Japan, Australia, the Phillipines, and the USA who send me virtual cuddles and ‘twitterhugs’ when I feel down.
Who are they? This is the reading for my funeral and this is for them.
Who Are My Friends?
Who are my friends?
These gems against a dark sky!
My chosen, my found, my beloved,
This is why!
They are the people who do not sleepwalk through their lives.
Though each be as different from each other as jam and chives,
This is the link,
They are the people who stop and think!
Who don’t do what is done,
Because it’s done and always has been.
They are the people who have seen,
That the middle of the herd,
Isn’t where they want to be.
They use their own judgement,
They have their own passions,
They are free!
My friends are the people who accepted me,
When the sleepwalkers found me strange.
They have lit my life with joy,
And taught me how to be
Most truly myself.
I have been beyond fortunate,
To find the people,
Who could let me be who I am,
When I couldn’t act a sham.
Who are individual enough themselves,
To befriend someone out of the norm,
And never turn and tell me I should conform.
Without them I would have been utterly lost.
They are strong and witty and wise and kind,
They have the courage to live with their eyes open.
In their own way each one is a shining star,
And I want my friends to know,
What very special people they are.
Valerie Higgins
Read other posts in Val’s diary here:
2 June 2010 – Hooray for corsets
24 February 2010 – So what is a stent?
10 February 2010 – A nice cup of tea
3 February 2010 – The joys of negative thinking
26 January 2010 – My secret tattoos
20 January 2010 – Plumbing problems (part II)
20 January 2010 – Plumbing problems (part I)
6 January 2010 – Of vampires and vaccinations
29 December 2009 – Beauty and fashion
