4 People And A Funeral

When Neil rang me a few days ago to say that we were having a funeral for his rat, Rosie, I thought he was joking.....how very wrong I was. 

Yesterday evening, I went out to the car so Neil and I could go to his friends house for dinner and sat in the passenger seat was a tiny wreath of flowers. That was it, I was gone!! I collapsed on the floor in absolute hysterics, this was too much, I wasn't sure how I was going to take this seriously and I really didn't want to offend anyone so was hoping the giggles would get out of my system pretty quickly!! 

When we got to Neil's friends house, we bought a bottle of wine and first-things-first, we toasted to the lovely rat that was (who was now in a shoe box in the fridge). After dinner and a lot of wine, we got ready to head up to Ally Pally for the funeral so Neil and D put their suit jackets on, picked up Rosie's box and held her on their shoulders as if starting the funeral march....as you can imagine I really tried hard to keep it together and felt very lucky I was the one standing behind the camera so that I could concentrate on something else. Beauty was though, D and Neil also struggled to keep a straight face and after taking about 25 pictures, we finally got a good one:

Then we all headed up to Ally Pally to say goodbye to the lovely Rosie. A hole was dug under a really big and beautiful tree, and the diva that was Rosie got placed gently inside accompanied by a Cath Kidston baby blanket and her 'packed lunch'. D said a really lovely poem about her and we all put a handful of dirt in and buried her up wishing her a safe journey, leaving the wreath on top. Having been laughing all evening, it now was actually rather sad. M, D and Neil all had a moment together and I think they all found it hard to leave, because although I have been joking the entire way through, Rosie was a big part of theirs lives; they told me hundreds of stories about times she had made them laugh, she sounded like she had a really great personality and was so human that she even offered them kisses. I have to admit, even I found it moving.

Farewell Rosie, as D would say "The best rat that ever was". Sleep well xxx