Today we said goodbye

It is so very sad to lose anyone, but their memories can live on forever.

Today we said goodbye to one of our first customers. He had been a Classics teacher during his working life and happened to be a neighbour of our Directors in Rochdale. He was very particular about his routine and habits, and we ensured his needs were followed to the letter. He had planned his final service with incredible precision and those involved ensured it carried out his wishes exactly as he had directed them to be. He wrote his own eulogy and penned a poem for his order of service. He often quipped that he did not have that many friends, but the turn out for his funeral belied that assumption. It was an honour and a privilege to have known him.

May he rest in eternal peace.

He wrote this poem in 1957.

When these eyes are closed in death

and all the years are gone,

when my should from me doth fly

and I no longer am,

when in death’s dark sleep I rest

from sin and sorrow free,

when I stand on Styx’s shore

and Charon waits on me.

When I cross that dark abyss

with no one by my side,

when I reach the further shore

where others should abide,

then I pay I may not rest

among the darker shades,

but ever may I wander there

amid the Elysian glades.