From Canon Andrew Bowden
Sir, - As one who inevitably takes
many funeral services, I share the Revd Charles Howard's concern
about mourners' feeling that they have to "do something" at the
service (Letters, 12
October).
I also find that a number of passages
now read on these occasions grate, because, with the best
intentions, they skate over the reality of death and mourning.
Occasionally, however, families come up with something that is
quite exceptional. Here is one such that Joanna Lambert wrote for
the funeral of her father, Michael Naylor-Leyland:
"I cannot say - 'Do not stand at his
grave and weep' - as all those who know me know that I will weep
and weep and weep.
"Death is not 'nothing at all'. It is,
at this time, everything.
"But let us pray that it will not
always be so, and that soon we will recognise that it is the
beginning of something new."
Now, that is honest and it is real,
and I suggest that others may wish to use it.
ANDREW BOWDEN
Washbrook Cottage
Caudle Green
Cheltenham GL53 9PW