IN LOVING MEMORY OF KEITH

We haven’t long been back from the Service of Thanksgiving for Mr. HCB’s cricket buddy, Keith, and what a service it was.  

You may remember that Keith was a member of the Salvation Army and they certainly know how to do a Service of Thanksgiving.  The committal took place prior to this service, which was at the Salvation Army Hall in Old Town and it was, at Keith’s own request, not a service filled with doom and gloom, but was uplifting in every way, full of memories, photographs and anecdotes.

It started off with a Musical Prelude with some stirring Salvation Army band music, followed by some rousing SA songs and if you didn’t know the songs when they first started, which we didn’t, by the end you did!

There were also a couple of special music interludes with photo memories, and as we have only known Keith for the last 12 years of his life, it was good for us to see the photographs of him and his dear wife, Vi, and their son, Graham, in their younger years.  

Keith had spent his whole career - 44 years - with W H Smith, a global retailer that sells newspapers, magazines, books and stationery, many outlets for which can be seen in High Streets, stations and airports.  He then had 28 years of retirement and throughout that time he attended Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, and for most of the last 12 years had been travelling there with Mr. HCB. 

Keith loved travelling and had visited his family in America many times as well as visiting friends in various parts of the UK.  I guess being part of a Salvation Army family that often moved about, they made friends all over the country, so there was always someone to visit or to offer hospitality to, when they visited Swindon. 

As well as his family and cricket - and Keith was especially proud of his grandchildren and great grandchildren - Keith also also loved trains, especially steam trains.  He was very kind to his neighbours, collecting newspapers regularly, putting out bins and taking them shopping. Many lovely tributes were given and one lady spoke in the service, in the “Time for Sharing Memories”, of living opposite Keith and how he and Vi had been very kind to them when they first moved in and, even up to the time of his unfortunate fall just before Christmas, how Keith always spoken to and been interested in their children.  There were many other lovely memories shared too and I was so pleased that Mr. HCB spoke of his friendship with Keith and said what a privilege it had been to know him and to share their love of cricket and Keith’s vast store of knowledge about the game.  

Until Keith went into the hospice a few weeks before he died, we never knew his name was “John Keith” and when we mentioned this to his son, he said he could never remember his Dad being called anything but Keith and of course, he will always be “Keith” to us.

You can see in my collage that someone had been very inventive when making the cup cakes - and having tried one, I can tell you they were delicious!  Of course, I had to take a shot of Graham and Mr. HCB proudly wearing their Gloucestershire County Cricket Club ties, both of which had belonged to Keith and I’m sure that Mr. HCB, who doesn’t normally wear a shirt and tie to cricket, will wear it one day with pride in Keith’s honour.  

The service concluded with a wonderful piano solo by the Choirmaster at the Swindon Citadel, Andrew Wicker.  It was a stunning rendition of the hymn, “Love Divine” and was really moving - in fact, the part that made me cry - and I hadn’t until then - was when Andrew played the part that has the words in the hymn,“Changed from Glory into Glory, Till in heaven we take our place...”.  I did tell Andrew afterwards how much I had enjoyed his playing and asked if I could take a photograph of his hands, which he very kindly gave me permission to do.

It was amazing too, how many people we recognised and when chatting to them after the service, to find out how, although unknown to us, our lives intertwined by knowing mutual friends.

So, here is my tribute to Keith - in collage form - it has been our absolute pleasure and privilege to know him - and we shall miss him, but we know we will meet again - and as the song says:

“When we all get to Heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!”
E.E. Hewitt