Celebrating the life we have

I recently attended one of my (many as I discovered) aunties funeral on Friday. Auntie Melrose was very close and we would see each other quite a few times through the year. She was well known and well liked by the huge family and many colleagues in Bristol city council where she worked for 25+ years. She lived in Easton and raised my cousin alone from when she moved to the uk decades ago.

She was a quiet but resilient women who worked hard all her life. She was also the most tech savvy Antie I had.

I learned about her death from a Facebook message from a cousin (chris) in Jamaica. It turned out she was on holiday there visiting the family and while swimming in the beautiful blue sea which surrounds Jamaica. Suffered a bleed on the brain and died in the water. Other members of the family tried to recover/save her of course.

In the funeral a friend of the family stood up and said some words like many many people. But he talked about dying in the seas of the homeland of Jamaica.

Although at first I was a little upset and thought it was a little sore, I started to think about it a little different. I gather Antie never suffered any prolonged pain. As the man said “what a way to go… In the cool calming blue seas of the Caribbean. No pain, no suffering”

Now the observant of you will notice the bleed on the brain is the same thing I had 2.5 years ago (#mybrushwithdeath). Obviously I have some experience of the what its like. But I really want to think about the life she had, and further reminds me of the posts I make about living the life your given/have/want.

I’ve had this tune in my head since I heard about my Antie…
Its called “Fool For Life” by Dash Berlin featuring the strong vocals of Chris Madin. Don’t know if out really sums up anything (she certainly was no fool! But somewhere in the lyrics it may something about us and what we do to ourselves?) but I keep catching myself humming it in my head when thinking about my antie’s death in the warm sunshine, 1000’s miles away… Then thinking I must celebrate life more.

I have an incredible family… Just on my dads side there were 15 siblings! At the funeral I was introduced to so many of dads siblings and there families! I once estimated to Sarah I have 100 cousins. Now I’m wondering if I was being too conservative with that number…! When even I thought I was stretching it a little. And don’t even start on the cousins kids!

I happened to catch the bbc2 programme, this world.

Anita Rani goes on a journey to discover why the Japanese are not having enough babies

Its shocking to see a country like Japan having such serious problems while a little island in the Caribbean is responsible for some incredible characters.

I guess all these combination of things have gotten me thinking hard once again about the purpose of why were here and what I should be doing with my life before it ends.

Rest in peace Antie Melrose…

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