Something sad yet very uplifting.
You might recall I posted that I was given the all clear from cancer at the RMH after 5 years of monitoring in early November.
What I didn't write was a very dear member of our group died and I was informed just before I was about to enter the consultation room 3 mins earlier.
Our dear friend was a Spaniard who married a nurse who was one of the set who trained with my wife. As a student nurse,just passed her finals , she met her future husband on Night Duty as nurse I/c the ward in Harrow Road (St Mary's).He died after a long fight with prostate cancer (10 years). A wonderful can do person with a fiery Latino passion.
They bought a very large farmhouse in the sticks and it's renovation was his passion. He cleared an overgrown copse of scrub and they buried the parents of the King Charles Spaniels they bred and loved.
A large Oak tree succumbed to the storms one year so our friend cut it down and sliced the trunk and preserved it in a redundant barn.
He was friends with a master carpenter who mentored him with woodwork.
Our dear friend became very creative with wood working and appreciated the wood and made some wonderful furniture for his children.
Yesterday he was interred in a grave,dug by his beautiful daughter, in their paddock. He was interred alongside the dogs. His coffin was made by his carpenter friend from the Oak that our dear friend preseved in his barn. Likewise a epigram was carved on a piece of oak and laid on his coffin. He lay facing West.
My wife and I did not attend their private and emotional interment but enjoyed meeting his family and friends at a Celebration of his life at a rural hotel. A great touch was that his daughter potted dozens of strawberry plants in pots for us to bring home as a remembrance and tribute to our dear friend Carlos. I don't think my dear wife will stop crying for a few days yet.
t
rfinals