Colin and John

A challenging journey up to Shropshire for the funeral of one of my cousins who died in March from a fatal aneurism while driving. We understand she lost consciousness immediately and her car crashed into another motorist seriously injuring the driver.

So while it was a challenging journey for us with heavy traffic, heavy rain, delays and more that the usual quota of manic motorists it was nowhere near as catastrophic as hers. We made it just in time.

Christine was more that just a relative, she was a good friend too. We stayed with her many times when we visited Shropshire for various dos, for the Folk Festival in Shrewsbury and latter years for increasingly common visits for funerals. A most generous host who fed and watered us well. She also know all the goings on. We’ll miss all of that.

I was honoured to be asked to read Psalm 121 in the service. Like most funerals we learned things about her that were new to us. There was a good amount of laughter during the service which celebrated her life.

We’re a dwindling band of cousins now, there once were 12, now we’re 7, ranging in age from 64 to 85.

Having made the effort to get here we decided to have a short break and will travel on to Church Stretton for a walk in the South Shropshire Hills and then onto Bishops Castle for a night there.

Todays blip is of two of the remaining cousins, they’re brothers but it is hard to see the family resemblance!