Cousins

Yesterday, sadly, I attended my cousin Doug's funeral in Dorset. This involved travelling from Glasgow to Southampton by plane, during so called "Storm Eleanor." It was certainly very windy, and the plane journey was bumpy, bumpy, bumpy - especially when we were coming in to land. I had lunch with Jennifer and Russell and it was so good to see them.
The funeral was very moving; Doug's three beautiful daughters are almost exactly the same ages as my three boys, and despite their grief they all did their Dad proud and spoke touchingly about him and his life, as did several of his close friends and of course his twin brother, David.
Of course all of his three brothers and his sister were there, and so were many of his cousins - there are quite a lot of us. It was genuinely nice to see them, some of whom I do see because they live near me and some of whom I haven't seen for years. It struck me that they really are a nice bunch and I must make a point of seeing them more often, rather than only on such a sad occasion.
I always remember that at my Aunt Rosemary's funeral many years ago - she was so young, much younger than I am now  - the chaplain said that she had "a short life lived well" and this really made an impression on me. I feel that this applied to Doug as well. Like Rosemary, he lived his life to the full despite being ill. His twin said that Doug would have been thoroughly embarrassed at the huge number of people who came to pay their respects to him yesterday and I'm sure that is true! But it was a very personal and fitting tribute to a fine man. On the way back to the airport and on the journey, the three of us cousins who were heading north (Kari and Janie and me) talked and reminisced about Doug and the rest of our amazing family.