Our meeting today, 30th October, was a bit of a sad one. It was the first time we had been together since Maggie L, who joined our group in 2012, had died. We heard this sad news last week and spent a large part of today’s meeting talking about Maggie and what we could do to show our respect.

We sent a condolence card to her son and his family earlier in the week.

Under current Covid rules a maximum of 30 is allowed at a funeral. Sometimes, the ceremony is streamed; people also like to pay respect by gathering outside the deceased person’s house or church as the funeral cortège goes past. Maggie had left instructions that there wasn’t to be a funeral procession so we’ll each remember her in our own way. And at least one of us will try to go to the crematorium.

We also heard that Liz was having surgery today and sent her virtual hugs for a successful outcome.

It wasn’t our usual jolly meeting but we managed a bit of a laugh reminiscing about funerals we’d attended. May was a bearer at one, which would have been ok if all the bearers (five women and one man) were the same height, but they weren’t! The ones at the front were quite a bit shorter than those at the back which meant that the coffin entered the church at a steep angle. Agnes’s uncle was buried in Ireland and the cortège took a circuitous route in order to pass by many of the places he had been connected with. A good idea – allowing people unable to attend the service or cemetery to pay respect as the coffin is driven by. Except that time was short and the hearse sped along so fast that anyone blinking probably missed it!

We finished off with a Halloween themed quiz, courtesy of Agnes. And a very good one it was too.

Here’s one of the questions:

The world’s largest halloween party takes place in which city of the UK?

Is it a) Birmingham b) Derry c) Edinburgh

Answer: Derry

And if you want to see what’s on offer in Derry this year, have a look here.

Next week’s quiz will be about Bonfire Night.

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