And another one…

Because I clearly don’t have enough to do, I’ve got another blog. This one is just for talking about being a grandmother and the time I spend with my grandchild(ren). I’ll keep this blog for the general stuff and devote that one to my life as Nanny Pam. The link is in the sidebar and is called My Child’s Child

And other things…

Today was a sad day. A lovely girl at work lost her fight with breast cancer last week. She was only 37 years old and was the epitome of the saying “only the good die young”. She had spent some years in Japan teaching English in her 20′s and developed close relationships with those she worked with. Because of this, she was visiting Japan for two weeks at the end of January for a friend’s wedding and another friend’s twins christening. Sadly, she spent the first couple of days with the twin’s family but was taken ill and missed the wedding, instead spending a few days in hospital. It turned out to be her last few days in this life. The emergency service that we work for (can’t write any related words as their Big Brother filters will pick it up and they have some poor bugger check the posts that include them) tried to work out a way to get her back home because the commercial airlines refused to transport her in her condition. Her extended family joined her and her husband in Japan just in case and, tragically, it was lucky they did because she passed away on Feb 7th. The family decided to have the funeral service and cremation in Japan rather than have her transported home. Today though, all her local friends got to say goodbye. There was representation from Arnhem Land aborigines where her family had lived and worked when she was a child, translations of condolences from her Japanese friends who thought she was amazing as well as anecdotes of her time in the Service from colleagues.

It was testament to her popularity as a wonderful human being (who lead an extraordinary life that I wasn’t even half aware of) that she had, what I estimated as over 400 people at her memorial service. About a 120 or more of my colleagues – all in dress uniform – formed an honour guard as the pipers lead the family through. A big white truck emblazoned with our logo (sorry can’t say the word) followed at the rear and had the beacons covered in black cloth which is our traditional way of honouring those lost. The honour guard was called to attention and as her ashes passed each of us, we brought our right hand up to cover our heart in respect and farewell until the truck finally passed when we dropped our hands and stood back to attention. It was quite the spectacle and a very emotional experience.

Her family were grateful for the formality and I think, in some small way, it helped them to understand that she wasn’t just special to them. She truly was an extraordinary person.

RIP Wama.

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