The third funeral in ten days this morning.  I was the organist, not one of the mourners on each occasion, that is.  This time, it started promptly and the timing of the music worked out fine.

Because I was playing, I didn’t look to my right and over my shoulder as the coffin was brought in and it wasn’t until well into the service that I noticed its size.  The man who died was younger than I am by nearly a year and a half, but he was a tall man of great enthusiasms who did everything in life with gusto, including eating, drinking and smoking and he’d spent some time in a nursing home, suffering from emphysema, before he died where he’d apparently put on even more weight.  The coffin was the biggest I’d ever seen and it was on a metal gantry rather than the usual wooden trestles.  When it was taken out, it was wheeled rather than carried.  The verger later told me that the undertakers had been quite anxious about it because of the steps through the church porch.  There is level access round the back, but the single door, though a wide one, was two inches too narrow to accommodate the coffin.  I don’t know how many people it would have taken to carry it, but the attempt was not made.

The rest of my seed order arrived and I spent some more time in the greenhouse this afternoon.  Yesterday, I found I still had some seeds left of some of the tomatoes I grew last year, so sowed a few of each, having forgotten how many more packets I’d bought.  I’ve rather lost count of how many there are, at least seven different varieties, about eight seeds of each.  I hope the family want to grow a few plants and will take some off my hands.

It’s been a busy day. This morning, I had a school meeting first thing, then the funeral, then back home to let my monthly cleaners in.  I scooted around for half an hour when they arrived, putting away clean laundry, finding them bed linen to change the sheets, clearing out the grate and emptying the ash pan before they dusted the room, bringing in fuel and lighting the fire, emptying the dishwasher and restacking it so that they had a clear run in the kitchen.  A friend arrived, by arrangement, while I was doing it and I made him coffee.  Then I returned two phone calls, one to make an appointment for next week and the other to discuss a school matter, I phoned the dentist to alter an appointment and I rang my surgeon’s secretary to confirm that she would book an x-ray for me when I go for my appointment.  This afternoon was rather quieter – and I still have an email to write.  Excuse me, darlings.  Goodnight.