Aftermath

My brother, sister & myself are coming to terms with our loss. Our mother's funeral took place yesterday. She was a proud & feisty 80 year-old Liverpool-Irish Catholic mother, strong in her faith & keen to stress her heritage. She hadn't been well for a couple of months & went into Fazakerly Hospital towards the end of October, feeling lethargic, breathless & weak. A recent bout of influenza had had a marked impact. After a week & a half, she was released & stayed at my sister's until Tuesday of last week when we rushed her back to the Hospital. Initially, she responded well to treatment. However, doctors had diagnosed an aneurysm by her heart. Its position made it inoperable. I visited her on Wednesday lunch-time; she was conscious & though a little bit woozy, was sufficiently alert to gossip about the other patients in her ward. Barely three hours later she succumbed to the aneurysm.
We took possession of her ashes today & I scattered them over the same area of the Garden of Rest cemetery in Thornton where my father's ashes were dispersed after his death nearly ten years ago.
I want to express my appreciation to the comments left on the last blog posting; thank you, professor, merci, Guillaume (http://vraiefiction.blogspot.com/ ).
Thank you also to the emails from Tony Karon (http://tonykaron.com/ ) & my good friend in New York, Philip Nadelman, who enclosed this poignant & beautiful Neil Young number:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMUa06YK6nM&feature=related .
The music chosen for her funeral service reflected her faith, including a stirring version of "Faith of our Fathers" by John McCormick. However, the two numbers marking the beginning & end of the cremation service represented her love of swing, Country & early pop. Opening the ceremony was Hank Williams' "Half As Much" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHUhekG3ubc ), while the strains of Ricky Nelson's "Hello, Mary-Lou" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLkCWT2neuI ) marked the conclusion of the service.
There's a postscript: my brother & sister-in-law had a baby son last Saturday. I emailed Philip in New York to let him know & enclosed this Lennon number:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XDY2UyMTYE .