Watcher Of The Skies

Third funeral in as many weeks this morning and I found this one a bit more difficult to deal with. I’d known Robin for thirty odd years as one of those friends who you don’t know a lot about but you do have a lot in common. We had shared interests in motorcycles, music and theatre but it was his interest in aviation which went beyond mine as he had obtained his Private Pilots Licence.
We went flying with him a couple of times. In exchange for a contribution to fuel he would happily take people on an aerial tour of the Lake District, including a couple of circuits around Kendal. It was interesting to be able to look down on our house from above!
It was a lovely ceremony with much laughter - especially when the celebrant reminded us that those flights out of Carlisle were provided by Turnbull World Air Transport. I’ll let you work out the acronym for yourselves!
It was obvious from the reactions of those who were there, that Robin was well liked by all who knew him. I didn’t actually know anyone else who was there, reinforcing the thought that you can know someone for years, but still not really “know” them.
Today’s blip title was played at the end of the ceremony, and seemed very apt. Until ill health prevented him from flying, Robin would be “upstairs” as often as possible, invariably with friends on board. I’m sure he is up there now, smiling down on us. And he would definitely have chuckled when the celebrant mistakenly called him “Steve” at one point…