The Woods family had organised to meet on May 11th at Pamela's house, to remember Dad, as it was one year since he had died and to scatter Mum's ashes as she had died unexpectedly 10 months later.
Geoff, Pamela and myself with the grandchildren Sarah and Florence and one great granchild Kara all took part in a simple but very special ceremony.
In the morning we all made origami paper boats.Some of us had written little notes inside the boats before they were folded. Crocheted flowers were made from mum's wool. Mum loved cake, so a huge chocolate cake was made. A candle was lit and photos of mum and dad were placed around the candle.
The weather was not the best and we'd had showers on and off all day. In the afternoon we walked down to the river in the most beautiful English countryside with our paper boats, flowers and ashes. We stood on the bank of the river and placed a handful of ashes and a flower into the boats and placed them on the fast flowing river.
Some of the boats sailed quickly down the river into the distance and other sailed for a short while and sank. When they sank the paper slowly unfolded and the ashes dispersed into the water. It was quite a lovely sight.
We were hoping to have the chocolate cake next to the river, however because the weather was bad we went home and talked about Mum and Dad in front of the fire, shared the cake around and placed a slice of cake next to the photo's.
One of the interesting things of the day was talking about mum's writing. She had started to write her memoirs and there were many things we knew nothing about, some quirky stories and some dark things about her family - but they're another story.
Geoff, Pamela and myself with the grandchildren Sarah and Florence and one great granchild Kara all took part in a simple but very special ceremony.
In the morning we all made origami paper boats.Some of us had written little notes inside the boats before they were folded. Crocheted flowers were made from mum's wool. Mum loved cake, so a huge chocolate cake was made. A candle was lit and photos of mum and dad were placed around the candle.
The weather was not the best and we'd had showers on and off all day. In the afternoon we walked down to the river in the most beautiful English countryside with our paper boats, flowers and ashes. We stood on the bank of the river and placed a handful of ashes and a flower into the boats and placed them on the fast flowing river.
Some of the boats sailed quickly down the river into the distance and other sailed for a short while and sank. When they sank the paper slowly unfolded and the ashes dispersed into the water. It was quite a lovely sight.
We were hoping to have the chocolate cake next to the river, however because the weather was bad we went home and talked about Mum and Dad in front of the fire, shared the cake around and placed a slice of cake next to the photo's.
One of the interesting things of the day was talking about mum's writing. She had started to write her memoirs and there were many things we knew nothing about, some quirky stories and some dark things about her family - but they're another story.
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