Little addendum - got off the computer, remembered what day of the week it was, and went to a funeral.

It was an old lady of 88, who had been ill for some years. I knew her a little through our church and through delivering meals to her for a while. The priest was Mike, one of the guys who took Ian's funeral, and he'd had a request from the family to light up the Christmas candles in the church (didn't do all of them, as there's over 100, but there were still about 70 lit). We sang carols, also at the request of the family. Of course, I shed a few tears in memory of Ian, but it just underlines what I said - there are many more whose grief journey is only just beginning.

Andrea xx