When a good friend and well loved member of my WI died at the age of 97 I was asked to write and read a tribute at the remembrance service. I was pleased to be given the opportunity and settled down to write. It took several days to prepare but at the end I was satisfied with what I’d said. The date and times of the funeral and remembrance service were entered in my diary as soon as I knew them and they were far enough away for me to rehearse.
But I nearly didn’t get the chance!
Because of a faulty light switch, my hall lamp was being switched off at the plug socket rather than the lamp itself. Unfortunately, this time the phone was switched off as well. At three o’clock the mistake was discovered when I went to make a call and found the phone was not connected. Casually I checked to see if there were any messages and, yes, there were. One in particular went like this.
‘Roy and I are going to the Crematorium now,’ said my colleague, who was to stand with me in the church to read a poem. ‘We’ll see you there. Okay?’
The call was timed at two hours earlier.
See me…. Where? She could only have meant the funeral which I had thought was three days hence!
Realisation rapidly set in.
The consequence of my incorrect diary entry was that I missed the funeral service at the crematorium and had ten minutes to wash, change, grab speech, and get over to the church, normally a three minute drive but which took longer that day because of road works. Wouldn’t you know!
I silently apologised to my deceased friend for the mistake.
Anyway I arrived at the church in time, was ushered to a seat, given a glass of water, and advised to remove jacket because of the heat. The service commenced a couple of minutes later. Three hymns, two tributes and a sermon later it was my turn. A lot of deep breathing paid off, I walked to the microphone, adjusted same, and launched into my homage to a wonderful lady.
My thoughts about that diary entry are varied but I feel sure I wrote the correct date given at the time. The entry date was 27th, the actual date was 24th, so close to my birthday on the 23rd as to be easily remembered.
But I nearly didn’t get the chance!
Because of a faulty light switch, my hall lamp was being switched off at the plug socket rather than the lamp itself. Unfortunately, this time the phone was switched off as well. At three o’clock the mistake was discovered when I went to make a call and found the phone was not connected. Casually I checked to see if there were any messages and, yes, there were. One in particular went like this.
‘Roy and I are going to the Crematorium now,’ said my colleague, who was to stand with me in the church to read a poem. ‘We’ll see you there. Okay?’
The call was timed at two hours earlier.
See me…. Where? She could only have meant the funeral which I had thought was three days hence!
Realisation rapidly set in.
The consequence of my incorrect diary entry was that I missed the funeral service at the crematorium and had ten minutes to wash, change, grab speech, and get over to the church, normally a three minute drive but which took longer that day because of road works. Wouldn’t you know!
I silently apologised to my deceased friend for the mistake.
Anyway I arrived at the church in time, was ushered to a seat, given a glass of water, and advised to remove jacket because of the heat. The service commenced a couple of minutes later. Three hymns, two tributes and a sermon later it was my turn. A lot of deep breathing paid off, I walked to the microphone, adjusted same, and launched into my homage to a wonderful lady.
My thoughts about that diary entry are varied but I feel sure I wrote the correct date given at the time. The entry date was 27th, the actual date was 24th, so close to my birthday on the 23rd as to be easily remembered.
Well at least you got there on time and you didn't have time to get nervous so that's good isn't it?
ReplyDeletewhew. glad you caught it in time...could have been a whole lot worse...
ReplyDeleteYes glad you did not miss it completely !
ReplyDeleteWizz :-)
Glad that you made it. That was close.
ReplyDelete