{"id":2169,"date":"2024-09-19T06:39:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T06:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2169"},"modified":"2024-09-19T06:39:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T06:39:51","slug":"memories-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/memories-2\/2169\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was upsetting to see Great Aunt Amy preparing for the funeral of Ted \u2013 her husband of 50 years. We took it in turns to make sure she had company, but it was difficult not to interfere when her behaviour seemed quite bizarre at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018When I called round, Amy had her photos all over the place. Understandable that she wanted to be with her memories but they looked so disorganised. I took her an album\u00a0 on the next visit, but she just put it to one side. \u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u2018Yes, I couldn\u2019t get her to talk \u2013 she just seemed to be mumbling as though she was trying to get something straight  in her mind. \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You don\u2019t think she\u2019s going a bit, you know, funny?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Well it must be a terrible shock, and she wants to talk about Ted at the funeral \u2013 so that\u2019s more pressure.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had put off seeing my great aunt, mainly because I didn\u2019t know how to handle a visit. But needs must, I took a turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy had a piece of black velvet spread in front of her. On the velvet were sparkling pieces of something that looked like glass shards. She was mixing them then drawing them together and then arranging  them in a line. The first worry was that she would cut her fingers, but looking more closely it was obvious that they were crystal beads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What lovely beads, Aunty. Are they from an old necklace?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018They are indeed. It was the first present Ted ever gave me and I kept the beads when the string broke. Such a precious memory of our life together\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Perhaps I could have them restrung for you and you could wear them again. Maybe at Ted\u2019s funeral?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Wonderful idea. Will it be ready in time do you think?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019ll do my best and it\u2019s important to at least try if they\u2019re so important to you.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You\u2019re very good to me. I\u2019ve been looking for a photo of me wearing the necklace.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We searched through the untidy piles of photos and found several of Ted and Amy and quite a few of her wearing the crystals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You know Aunty, I could very easily get some of these pictures made into a file and we could project them onto a wall at the funeral. Is that something you would like?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s beyond me, but I\u2019ll leave it in your hands. I\u2019ve got my speech to think about.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come the day of the funeral I went round to Amy\u2019s house with the restrung beads and a print out of her photo display. She beamed, and we rode, in the first  of the family cars, behind Ted for his send off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best bit \u2013 if funerals can have best bits \u2013 was Amy\u2019s address. She spoke about the projected photos, about the day of their engagement, about the first gift of the crystal necklace (still doing  service). Words flowed. She was fabulous, such a credit to life she and Ted had shared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was upsetting to see Great Aunt Amy preparing for the funeral of Ted \u2013 her husband of 50 years. We took it in turns to make sure she had company, but it was difficult not to interfere when her behaviour seemed quite bizarre at times. \u2018When I called round, Amy had her photos all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1129,1384],"tags":[279],"class_list":["post-2169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1129","category-sept-2024-precious","tag-memories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-yZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2171,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions\/2171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}