Sunday, June 14, 2009

Second concert

At 2 am this morning the hospital phoned – Tony was restless and they recognized this as the end. Nick went and was there with him and the family when Tony passed away. We grieve with the family but rejoice that we will meet again. The funeral will be on Tuesday morning – Nick will bury him at the Knollcombes Baptist cemetery, and then just have time to get home and change before embarking.

After Good News Club we visited the family briefly; most of the funeral arrangements had already been thought through. The boys, Sappho and Tom had a ‘Parents’ Fun Day’ organized for the Piccolo parents – they had, between the four of them, arranged a concert for us to enjoy. There had obviously been a lot of thought and practice, and we heartily applauded their efforts. Sappho played violin, Tom and Caleb played the recorder, and Caleb played a guitar piece as well. Aaron lost his nerve and hid behind a table when it was his turn to read jokes. We tried to encourage him beforehand not to be nervous, but stage fright got hold of him. Went back to town in the afternoon, both to pay another visit to Shirley, who was holding up very well, and to collect a laptop from Pam which Nick will borrow whilst on Ascension. This was the view of town as we were going down, but coming home the rain had stopped and the fog had almost cleared, bar a few wisps of cloud floating in the valley.

No comments: