Eddie - or Uncle Eddie - as Shirley called him was her mother's only brother. Born in 1939, he grew up with six sisters. Two other siblings died from diphtheria when they were little. In recent months, Eddie had been battling lung cancer but his demise was not really long and drawn out. He drifted away at the end of April.
I liked Eddie and always enjoyed talking with him. He showed interest in others be they high and mighty or lowly serfs. He himself had no academic qualifications to his name. He worked in farming and farm machinery and later at a big brick and tile works east of Doncaster. I don't know exactly what he did there but it did not matter because I liked him for he was - not for how he earned money.
Eddie was mischievous and had a sparkle in his eye. A lifelong football fan, he supported Scunthorpe United but whenever he saw me we would first talk about how Hull City were doing for he could easily relate to my club allegiance.
He had two daughters and two marriages. Though his first marriage disintegrated, his second marriage to a nice woman called Carol was very happy and long-lasting. He embraced Carol's daughter as though she were his own child.
The vicar did a fine job of researching the warm eulogy that Eddie deserved. There was the singing of three well-known hymns - "We plough the fields and scatter", "He who would valiant be" and "Jerusalem". Then there was the "commital" at the church door where the coffin waited before being driven to Scunthorpe for cremation.
The image of the commital will remain with me. The vicar in his ceremonial robes looking back into the church and behind him the sunlit greenery of Maytime. In front of him the polished beechwood coffin with a simple wreath of roses on top, then Eddie's immediate family. His daughters, his remaining sister, his wife and his grandchildren.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/2gUIDYR
