I am speaking at my grandmas funeral tomorrow and wanted to end with a poem.
My gran was quite a dificult charactar and as a consequence there will only be about half a dozen of us there. She was someone who refused to conform and has done lots of very eccentric things. When I was yonger she spent lots of time with me teaching me about nature and sewing.
I have 2 choices so far
Lots of us perhaps did not give enough time to my gran as as she was difficult and even cruel and let other things get in the way . I think we could also learn from her to live life to the full or break rules. THis leads me to choice one:
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly?s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don?t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won?t last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask: How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done,
do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You?d better slow down.
Don?t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won?t last.
Ever told your child,
We?ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say, ?Hi??
You?d better slow down.
Don?t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won?t last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It?s like an unopened gift thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower.
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
Or a suggestion from mumsnetter drawing on the idea that she was eccentric
When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along the public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other people's gardens
and learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go
or only bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
and pay our rent and not swear in the street
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
I am concerned if this will offend anyone especially as she died in a lot of debt.
.