John Edward Cooper’s Notes

…J and I went to Old Clee church by taxi. At the gate were Chris and Ros, because they would be part of the procession into the church. We chatted, then we left them and went in. I didn’t see Joan and Gordon at first, then I noticed Gordon, forward left, in front of everyone else, partly concealed by a pillar. It was a large, pale, fairly ornate coffin. The vicar (or whatever rôle or rank he was) included the information that Brian was a Christian, and went to the church-services in Qatar, which are held on a Friday. He spoke about life after death, and just as in the case recently of Brian Robinson’s funeral, he mentioned relatives past AND FUTURE on the walls of the heavenly city, welcoming Brian in. “The only ones missing are the ones who are alive on earth at the moment.” Where do they get these unscriptural notions from? It was when J and I got a lift with Chris off his Uncle Allan to the cemetery where the service of interment was conducted, that we found out that Joan and Gordon wouldn’t be there, and that we’d missed the opportunity to see them before we left the church. And Allan gave us a lift home, before they proceeded to the “do”. I wasn’t fit to go to that, in my condition.…