Max’s funeral was on Monday at 2:00 on 18 November. We had heard that about 150 people would be coming and maybe 110 from further afield. In fact, as we followed Max in we found a Church packed with so many more people on whom Max had had an effect. We were told afterwards there were about 260 people there. So, apologies that the 200 orders of service what not enough.
Over and above Max’s past in the choir which was a reason for all to sing out, I find that music and singing is a key part of the spirituality of Church and so was hoping that people would fill the church with sound on this of all days. The congregation surpassed all those hopes. A wall of sound reached forward to us at the front.
Even though Max was one of their own, we are still very grateful to Christ Church, Fulwood for embracing us too and Natacha and others in the Team even providing refreshments before the service to the Newcastle contingent and other travellers. Also grateful to Will, Isabel, Vanessa, Helen, Max, ‘Dutch’ and Andy for stepping up as representatives of friends, family, godparents and church, reading and leading the prayers during the service and to Pete for his advice beforehand and leading the service on the day.
I am painfully aware that we did not manage to speak to everyone, nor even see everyone, as Sarah has reported friends I did not see, and the book of signatures attests to even more. But the silver lining to this very black cloud is the support we have gained from seeing those names, from just catching your eye on the day even if we did not manage to speak later, and meeting lots of Max‘s friends and putting names to faces. I hope you, too, ran into some old friends at Tapton Hall and left well fed.
Tom set up Max’s page on this site and we are truly humbled by the number and scale of donations. We know who many of you are and thank you for the first time here and will no doubt, mention thanks over time, as we see you. We do not know who some of you are and so this is where we will thank ‘ANONYMOUS’ for each and every donation. Thank you all for supporting the work that Papyrus and ABF do.
I hope that you all managed to get home safely despite the weather. Thank you for celebrating Max’s life with us. Don’t be strangers.
Richard, Sarah and Tom.
