Tag: Elizabeth MIlls

A celebration of a life.

My mother was a remarkable woman.

Back in North-West London (Preston Road, Wembley) my two sisters, Elizabeth and Eleanor, are today hosting a party to celebrate my mother’s life. Many family members and friends will be at the house.

My contribution was to record a eulogy that I will broadcast to everyone using a ‘FaceTime’ link between here and Alex’s tablet that he will have with him at the party.

I wanted to share that eulogy with all you good people.

Flick!

Just like that!

How is it that I am sitting at a computer keyboard writing these words in this my seventy-second year of my life!

Where did it all go?

What did I learn?

But this is what I do know.

That it is only as we get into our ‘senior’ years that we can start to put our lives into some form of perspective.

When I look back at my life I can see many things that, in hindsight, I didn’t handle all that well. Yet that same backward gaze also reveals many things that I would never have changed.

That is the person that I am.

Or to put it in a more introspective way, that is the person that I was brought up to be. For each and every one of us rises to adulthood wearing a rather colourful psychological overcoat. Our life’s journey hopefully offers us the opportunity to undo our overcoat from time to time and take note of the shape and style of our underclothes.

That is the true legacy of my father, of my step-father and, most importantly, of my mother.

I was very privileged to have them as my guardians and parents.

Mum and Jeannie - photo taken 31st July, 2014 here in Oregon.

Mum and Jeannie – photo taken 31st July, 2014 here in Oregon.

The end of an era.

In memory of a great woman.

My mother was born on December 10th, 1919

She died a short while ago, at 21:22 GMT/UTC on Monday, November 14th.

That is 9:22 pm British time on the same day as the moon’s closest distance to our Mother Planet since 1948.

Or to find some poetry in the timing of the end of my mother’s life, she died 10 hours to the minute after that closest moment of the moon’s passing, that was at 11:22 British time this morning.

p1160632This photograph of the moon was taken last night from here at home in Oregon at a few minutes after 10pm.

My mother was born Elizabeth Foreman and after the death of our father, Frederick Handover, in 1956, she subsequently married Richard Mills.

My sister, Elizabeth, and I were born in 1944 and 1949 respectively. My mother and Richard were parents to our half-sister Eleanor, who was born in 1959.

Our mother was an incredible woman and her death is truly the end of an era for the family.

For the rest of my years, I will look up at the full moon and remember my mother’s amazing life.

Dan, my Best Man, at the wedding of Jean and me, November 20th 2010
Dan, my Best Man, at the wedding of Jean and me, November 20th 2010. My mother is between Dan and me.

Dear people, you will understand why I will be taking a few days away from blogging.