A Celebration

Afternoon Strumpets,

And so it was that this afternoon we said goodbye to our friend Alan. It truly was a celebration, with a beautiful Eulogy delivered by Giles Pinkney, and music ranging from Pachelbel, Cat Stevens, and from Rod Stewart to Glen Miller.

Check out the picture above. Alan had that taken a couple of weeks ago, with the idea of putting it on the front of his Service guide. He`s playing that harp somewhere. He was brought in with flowers and a flag from his beloved RNLI covering his coffin to the sound of Pachelbel`s Canon. The first song was Morning Has Broken, followed by a reading "The Fishermans 23rd Psalm", and then the aforementioned Eulogy.

Next was the heartbreaker. "Sailing" by Rod Stewart. I must be honest, I`ve never thought of this song as anything other than a piece of Seventies tat, but to sing those words in that Church, knowing what he must have been going through when he picked them, Christ!

"I am sailing Stormy waters, to be near you. to be free
I am dying, forever trying, to be near you to be free,
Oh Lord to be near you, to be Free"

He was then carried out to "In the Mood" by Glen Miller, which anyone who knows anything about a musical instrument will tell you, was not written for a Church Organ! But it was carried off magnificently (and Alan would have loved that pun) as he left the church to a standing ovation, and a lot of laughter and tears.

It`s the service he deserved, it`s just a shame it was about thirty years too soon.

Mark.