Yesterday Alex and I attended a celebration of life for our friend Davey that passed away unexpectedly last weekend.(this is getting all too common as of late - not liking it!) We were sitting in the church listening to all of Davey's mates telling some fabulous stories - some maybe not
quite appropriate for a church but they had edited some of the wording (and when I looked over at the priest he was laughing so hard along with the rest of us...) A few of my faves were: they had been on a 14 hour flight talking almost the whole way as they were sound engineers for concerts and were talking about the show they had just worked on. Davey was so tired he laid right in the aisle of the plane and fell asleep. The flight attendants didn't want to wake him, so when they brought the trolley by with drinks, they lifted it right over him and went on their way.(that would not be happening in this day and age....haha...) and another story was about lighting guys and sound engineers having endless confrontations of whose job is the most important and I loved Davey's quote about this situation - " they don't walk out of the show humming the lights." haha...Regardless of their differences they were all friends and what stayed with me the most yesterday as I was listening to all of these stories were the last bit where they all said " I wish he knew how much I respected and loved him, he meant the world to me and I didn't tell him." I think he knew, most likely. He was a kind gentle soul that we will all miss! At the end of the ceremony, a lone bagpipe player came from the front of the church to lead us all out (that is when my tears started flowing, i guess just the finality of it always gets me.) I looked over at Alex and at that moment a vision crossed both of our minds and memories - we had been at a friends wedding reception a few years ago and he was wearing a kilt, when he turned to me and asked me to hold his drink (well it was a bottle of whiskey or something of the sort) and with one hand right in the middle of the room did a cartwheel..It was quite impressive as he wasn't a small man at all...haha....Alex and I just kept looking at each other hoping we wouldn't burst out laughing at this most solemn moment in the church, but I bet if we did Davey would have loved it! He himself lived quite the life with loads of interesting stories I'm sure. I could have stayed all day just for the fun stories! I know I am preaching to the choir when I tell you all not to hesitate for a moment to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you - so you don't have any regrets. This conversation has come up many times with my daughter as we have had a few friends in the last few months that have lost family members and I always tell her should something happen to me I just wanted her and my son to know that I have had a wonderful life and have enjoyed it all - the good, bad and the ugly of it all! I wish the same for you all! Have a gorgeous day everyone, smile at a stranger and make their day!
xxoo
Ahh Cathi ~ how sad it is to lose another friend but the funeral sounded like a celebration of his life which is what it should be! Sounds like he was quite the character and would have enjoyed all the stories that were told. I am openly affectionate and I love you rolls easy off my tongue so I am one of the fortunate ones. When Dad passed away I had no regrets with him ~ there was no I should have done this or said that because it was something we did all the time ~ that does the heart good.
ReplyDeleteHope you are having a good week-end. xo
What a lovely post Cathi.....the funeral sounded so fitting for your friend. I am very sorry for your loss though, especially when it is unexpected.
ReplyDeleteThere is something so haunting & poignant about bagpipes I always.....lovely though too.
Hope you're having a great weekend!! X