Wanda

Attended two funerals today! Fortunately neither of them was mine ...... as far as I can tell.

I turned up at the crematorium this afternoon about 15 minutes before the service, not wanting to be late. Turned off my mobile - it has such a loud ringtone I'd be mortified if it went off at a funeral - and joined the assembled mourners. I didn't recognise any of them but that wasn't a surprise as it was the father of a school friend who lives out of the area.

The funeral cortege approached and I craned my neck to get a view of the family. Couldn't see my school friend or his brother; instead, an elderly couple got out of the limo. Unusual; I was convinced it was only a small family and wasn't expecting any older relatives. The second limousine pulled up - and although the occupant bore a passing resemblance to my friend it certainly wasn't him. Strange, couldn't see my friend or his brother.

Amazing how slowly the realisation dawns - all sorts of possibilities went through my mind before the obvious emerged - I was at the wrong funeral! I have heard of these "professional" mourners who go along to funerals for a free meal afterwards, never thought I'd end up doing it!

A quick check on the running order and found we were an hour early - there was a church service first - I'd got the right time, wrong venue. I'd had the message about the funeral just after New Year, but also had another one [last week]; same day, different time. So I guess the details of the two got mixed up in my mind as other events unfolded.

Slipped away as unobtrusively as possible for a quick visit to the hospital to Kims Godfather, then back an hour later to the crematorium for the second time. Instant relief when I saw the friend and his family arrive - I got there eventually.

At the wake afterwards we were having a quiet laugh at my expense when one of the guests confided that she'd been to four family weddings in the past year, and fully expected something to happen to fulfil the "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

And so my photo for the day is, of course, "A Fish Called Wanda", a memento of a holiday in France.