Rest in peace, dear friend

A couple of weeks ago, one of my best friends died. Suddenly. Totally unexpectedly. Snatched away by the big ‘C’. True to life, however, my friend was already prepared. She was buried in her chosen glade, deep in a  woodland cemetery in the Chilterns. The kindly Celebrant reminded all of us there to live for our ‘dash in between’ and not worry about the dates either side on the tombstone. ‘Living life to the full’ was certainly a precept of my dear friend. I was reminded again of that by wise ‘old’ Virginia Ironside, in her column in The Guardian this week. At 75, she has decided not to worry about ‘being careful’. She’s taken to heart the motto “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”. Virginia is already older than my friend. I wish I could have been merry with her for a few more years.