The weather is still very warm, and it was particularly warm on Wednesday, when Dot and I travelled to Leyton for David Coomes’ funeral. David (Lenton!) also came: we met at the cemetery.
The Requiem Mass was a little strange, but the highlight was three Leonard Cohen songs played instead of hymns: You want it darker, Anthem and If it be your will. Couldn’t have been more appropriate. The chapel was full and included such broadcasting “names” as Michael Buerk, Michael Portillo and David Starkey. No wonder the priest looked nervous. All three wives were there, but the first two were not mentioned in the eulogy. I thought Anne might have been hurt by this, but amazingly she wasn’t. Not sure what Jennie thought.
This was followed by a hot, dusty and longish walk to the burial plot, where I chatted with Kristine’s family and Jane’s, and then a longer walk to a pub on Leyton High Street for the wake, which was attended by a large number of people. I saw David Starkey talking to Jane, which must have been interesting. I spent some time talking to Deborah, a friend of Kristine’s who had never actually met David but had got to know Kristine through cancer treatment. Also had a long chat with Kristine herself.
Some very nice food and wine, and we left just after 3pm to catch the 3.30pm from Liverpool Street. Unfortunately I forgot the funeral sheets and newspapers and had to go back for them, which resulted in our catching the train with roughly ten seconds to spare. We had come down on the 8.30 from Norwich, which got us to the cemetery via the Central line in good time. David got there in good time too, despite a train cancellation.
The previous day I attended the Archant coffee morning. Dot was at a school, as was Paul (not the same school), but the rest of the usual suspects were present, including Maryta. Afterwards I had my glasses tightened. Later still Dot and I had our hair cut, and in the evening we watched England beat Colombia on penalties in the World Cup, which just goes to show.
On Thursday I attended a meeting of the trustees and re-enactors of the Paston Heritage Society. This promised to be quite fraught, as Lucy had had to be dissuaded from coming, and two or three of the re-enactors were quite angry at the way she’d been treated (or allegedly treated) by the UEA and the Footprints project manager. I had fielded long calls from Ruth, Diana and Lucy herself.
During the meeting, however, it became clearer what had happened – Lucy just couldn’t deal with the requirements of the project manager, and there was a big personality clash resulting in her resigning and almost simultaneously being asked to depart (from the project). The re-enactors were reassured that Lucy was still part of the PHS and they and she could work on projects not formally part of Footprints. We’ll see how that goes.
In the last couple of days my proud walking record had fallen by the wayside. I completed 37 days of walking over 5000 steps a day, and in the last couple of days have walked far fewer than 5000 in total, partly because my knee was feeling a bit odd, but mainly because I was very tired. Still am, actually. I keep waking up just after 6am for no apparent reason.