A good one and winking.

Today was a good ceremony.

How do you judge these things? By the comments you get afterwards? By the number of people who come to shake your hand? By your own gut feel? The comments from the funeral director? Whatever it was, today went well.

The main person I have to thank for that is the wife of the deceased. She had written a piece from her late husband's point of view, which, I'll be honest, I was worried about. Because I'd never met the man, I didn't know if I would give it the right voice, but, bless her, it worked. Folks were laughing through their tears, and it set the right tone for the whole ceremony.

On the way out, she thanked me, and praised the ceremony, as did the deceased's mother (he was a young man, sadly), and various assorted relatives. I got a kiss from the wife's Mum.

There was a man of the cloth in the crowd. That phased me a little to start with, but in the end I just had to do my best. I know that I tripped over a few words and said a poem wrong (didn't carry over a line properly), and I was conscious of his presence then, but the rest of the time, I just made sure I didn't cry, and tried to do a good job.

On the way out, he hesitated before coming to shake my hand. I hope I didn't smile too much at his reticence.

On a completely different tack, I've noticed that I do a lot of winking. I'm sure I winked about four times during today's ceremony, as I spoke to/about different members of the family. It's a bad habit, and I must break it.


Feeling good - and happy about tomorrow's ceremony too - nice people, I hope it will go well. Just got to get Thursday behind me, and deal with control freak woman on Friday (more to follow), and it will have been a successful week.