Back from England

I nipped over to England for Uncle Keith's funeral - got back a couple of days ago but am still completely shattered.

The funeral itself was lovely but very emotionally draining. It was hard to believe Keith was in the coffin. The dedications (is that what you call them?) were all lovely. Lesley summed up everything I would say about Keith. One of his colleagues (Tom I think) just stood up and talked and cried for about 10 minutes and had everyone in tears.

Afterwards we went to Wrabness where he was buried in a woodland burial ground - the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was beautiful.

And then we went to a pub somewhere in the beautiful Essex countryside. There were (I think) 16 or 17 Werbs in one room. Nick was there with his wife Clare, uncle Chris with his partner Jo, uncle Mick and his partner. All people I haven't seen in decades.

The rest of the weekend was really lovely. The sun shone, and we were in a beautiful place. Bobby and I were both there with no children, so we could actually finish all our conversations. We had a day with Mark and Rosie, and Archie and Immy (who had just learnt to walk). Then we had an evening with Sue in her beautiful house and garden. And then we had a day with daddy and Lesley, and we got to see Ben and Jon again, as well as finally meet Tanmy.

And after all that I drove my little Corsa back to Heathrow, then flew home, still going on adrenaline. Mike and the children met me at Boston Logan, having spent the afternoon at the Boston Children's Museum, and had lunch in Portsmouth NH. I was quite jealous actually.

By the time we got home we were all shattered, and Mark's struggling to catch up on his sleep this week. My body's well and truly confused, and work's throwing everything it's got at me...