My Lilac Tree

I'm never sure whether to call him Grandad or Sid but it was his funeral today.  I never knew my real Grandad, unfortunately he died when my dad was young and so as a child I knew Sid as Grandad.

In a strange way I often feel uplifted and positive after a funeral, I think it's the things I learn by commemorating someone's life and also by spending time with family who maybe I wouldn't have seen for a while otherwise.  My Aunty Chris read a poem that my Gran had written sometime before she died and mentioned how well Sid had cared for her when she was unwell during her last days.

For me it was a day to remember my Gran too, I found it fascinating reading the original handwritten copies of her poems, looking at old photos and remembering memories through the eyes of me as a child. 

When the breeze fans the leaves on my lilac tree
My heart leaps for joy, and I feel like singing,
How I envy the birds that are singing and winging on high,
If I could fly away, and spend just one day
Floating and tossing on white clouds that beckon
In that blue blue sky.
But who am I? all my dreaming and scheming
Though it cheers up my day must end -
So I go on my way, to buy chops
Or such like things from the shops
Glad that dreams are free,
And thank God for the gift of my lilac tree.