A warm welcome to all those of you who are watching this special online memorial service.
Next year will see this facility enter its 50th year of service to the local and extended
community and far beyond. 2020 has seen many changes for us all, more
significantly we’ve all had to adapt to different ways of living and socialising.
Usually, at this time of year, we would be opening our gates and welcoming several hundred
people into the grounds for our annual open air memorial service.
Well, I’m pleased to say our gates are still open for chapel services and to visitors who
wish to come and pay their respects. Realising how important the annual memorial
service is to many people, we hope instead, you will enjoy this specially recorded service,
created for you at home, to remember the lives of those who are no longer with us.
As The Mayor of Bracknell Forest, it gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you who
are watching this recording to our 2020 Memorial Service here at Easthampstead Park Cemetery
and Crematorium.
This year has seen many changes to the way we live.
COVID-19 has made it necessary to adapt the way we do things – such as meeting in social
situations.
Although we have seen some easing of restrictions, we are still not able to enjoy the freedom
of meeting all our family and friends where and when we wanted as we did before COVID-19.
We recognise the sacrifices and challenges that residents have made.
We are all too aware of how social distancing has created feelings of loneliness and sadness
for some of you.
Being able to keep in touch via telephone and the internet, to chat over the garden
fence and the remarkable neighbourliness of those living close by, are reasons for us
to be truly grateful and thankful.
Being able to hold this Service – be it virtually – is so very important to all
of us.
Everyone who has taken part in creating this video did so with a shared goal of bringing
a sense of calm and comfort to each and every one of you who is watching this.
At the end of this service we will release white doves as a sign of peace, freedom and
our hope for an end to our current challenges.
Our heartfelt best wishes to you all.
Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you Whatever we were to each other, that we are
still. Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference in your tone, Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that
it always was, Let it be spoken without effect, without the
trace of shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner. All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was
before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting
when we meet again!
Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a
book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted.
Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and
when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t
matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before
you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.
Certainly, when someone we love is gone from our sight, we still retain many things from
them. Maybe physical things that they've made, but also memories of occasions, of their character,
their likes and dislikes, their sense of humour and their influence on us - all their
unseen qualities they had while alive, remain with us.
The same memories that make us sad at first, will in time make us smile again.
And their lasting influence on our lives, lives on with us, along whatever path we tread.
In the present environment, where we can not greet one another with a hug or a handshake,
or put a hand on someone’s shoulder in their time of grief, there is still comfort
to be found in other things.
In the most difficult of times, the unseen comfort of love is around us in many different
forms. It may be the love from our family or friends, kindness from neighbours, the companionship
of a beloved pet, or the distraction of immersing oneself in a favourite pastime or hobby.
Love is one constant when other things may cease. So, let’s remember all those we love
who are no longer with us but who will remain forever in our hearts, very much loved and
never forgotten.
We come together as one family of people united in our love for those we love who are no longer
with us. May our love and the close bonds we formed
in our lives keeps us eternally united with our families of loved ones, whether here or
there. May we have the courage, constancy and hope,
that each new day brings with it renewed strength for us to live our lives to their fullest
and with kindness and mindfulness for those we meet.
We promise our loved ones to cherish their memories and let them live on.
May we find peace in our hearts
in our homes in our nation
and in our world
May the sun bring us new energy by day May the moon softly restore us by night
May the rain wash away our worries May the breeze blow new strength into our
beings And may we walk gently through the world and
know it’s beauty all the days of our lives.
"Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When
you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find
your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood
in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope”