David George Alleyne

It was a beautiful funeral. Please don't agonize over not having given an appreciation at its start. I'm quite sure most of us (if not all) who were present, fully understood how difficult the prospect of giving one must have been.

Honestly, there's really not much I can say that would ease your sorrow. It was just over a year ago (although, it seems much more recent to me) that you had to deal with Robert's death. And now this. I think the best advice I can give would be allow yourselves as much time as each of you feels necessary, to grieve. Don't hold it in. Let it out, and do so for as long as you want! I can state from personal experience that weeping due to the passing of a loved one is cathartic. I didn't weep on learning of Mummy's death. I just felt too overwhelmed to do so. Neither did I weep at anytime during the planning of the funeral, nor at the funeral itself. I simply didn't feel like it. It was too stressful to weep, I guess. Everyone was saying how we would break down when the undertaker lowered Mummy into the grave and the finality of her death hit us. But nope. Not a single tear was shed. I didn't feel a thing. I was just "going through the motions", as they say.

It was only about a week later, while I was sitting on a couch at home and just gazing outside, in quietness, except for the sound of the wind, chirping birds, and the odd vehicle, did a feeling of tremendous sadness hit me. I wept deeply and almost inconsolably. But you know what? Shortly afterwards, I felt terrific! It was like a burden which had been weighing on my spirit from the day Mummy died, had been lifted. This isn't to say that I don't often think of her and sometimes still feel a tinge of sadness because I do. I dream of her occasionally, but they're always pleasant dreams. No nightmares. My dreams don't include her as much as before, though.

Anyway, just know we (Juliette and I) are thinking of you.

God bless you all.