Last Goodbye

We sadly said our goodbyes to Philip's mum, Dallas, on Friday.  She would have been 82 in December. Thankfully, she had a short illness finally succumbing to Emphysema and heart disease.  We were fortunate enough to have her stay with us for a week before she was admitted into hospital even though we of course didn't realise it would be her last stay.
Dallas never wanted any fuss so we decided to have a private funeral ceremony for immediate family.  I picked flowers from our garden to lay across her coffin.  She loved the garden so it was fitting that they should be the flowers we used.
As there were only seven of us we had our chairs placed in a semi circle around the coffin and we all took turns to speak.  It was beautiful and touching and Philip and I have said that we also want to do the same thing when our turn comes.
After the funeral we went back to Dallas's apartment where we had laid out her personal belongings for the family to chose what they wanted.  We then took our drinks and nibbles outside to the pool area and sat around and chatted.  Dallas would have loved it.
I will miss Dallas, even though we didn't always see eye to eye, but we had a great deal of respect for each other and at the end of the day that is the most important thing.