It says much about a culture how we say goodbye to our loved ones.
And as we bid farewell to our Dear Old Mum today, some thoughts on what we’ve picked up from our travels.
Now some cultures like to go big and bold and brash but we prefer simple and serene.
Teasy will announce herself on the family stone with her name and dates… and she’ll stand out.
Hers is a plot in Glenfin, Co. Donegal and you’ll know it’s Ireland by the Gaelic Football pitch backing onto the graveyard.
May you be in heaven
The Irish, of course, have a healthy approach to death and their own funeral service website RIP.ie, from which Britons can learn.
With their wakes, party funeral receptions and a care for graveyards which we have forgotten on this side of the Irish Sea.
And their uplifting scripts and you may recognise this one.
‘May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.’
Sunrise and Sunset
Perhaps it’s an island thing although Britain seems to have missed that memo.
Because our Caribbean chums also have a healthy attitude to the passage from this world to the next.
Now I don’t know who Tobagonian Emily McDougall is but you’d have to think she has Scottish descent.
But her gravestone will draw visitors to stop and reflect because of the inscription.
A heart-shaped sign as you can see with a tribute which recognises nature and a sunny people.
By dating her to Sunrise and Sunset.
And because you all know that I’m an unrepentant cribber I have let it be known that I want that too when my time comes.
Wit and wisdom
Of course there are those who use wit to soften the blow for those of us who are left… it’s how we say goodbye.
With Spike Milligan, of Goons fame, instructing family to insert this message to be put in his stone…
Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite which translates as ‘I told you I was ill’.
Which Billy Connolly has finessed by joking on one of his many travelogues as ‘You’re standing on my head.’
Now we all have our ways and drift off on our travels and one of my Dear Old Dad‘s was graveyards.
And it’s something we share and I seek out wherever I go.
You know find out about a place by going to where the locals play and pray.
And of course whenever I want to be with my Mum from now on I know where she’ll be, back in her heavenly home of Brockagh, Co. Donegal.