Mothers Funeral

Hi,

Another sad day,  my Mother is being buried today,  these are the flowers that I have done for her coffin,  just thought you might like to see them.  I took the picture on our patio.
I have arranged a funeral with her wishes of the sailor hymn and we have the sailors poem,  Mother was in the second world war,   on the high seas higher either on Troop ships or Hospital ships and was captured by the Japanese and held in a POW camp for two and half years.
When I was a child mother had a little travel business,   we travelled Europe visiting hotels etc and seeing what places had to offer.
One of the stories was she took a party to Spain, I was only three at the time,  we meet them all at Victoria Station in London,  this lady told her that she was not going to eat octopus,  all the way down on the Barcelona Express we were told she was not going to eat octopus.  When we got the the hotel she told the hotel owner she was not going to eat octopus.  The first meal that night was octopus,  she liked it and no one told her it was octopus,  she had it several times before going home and when we arrived back at Victoria Station she told my mother she was so pleased she had never eaten octopus,   I don't think she ever found out.
When I was five we went to see a hotel in Italy,  I wont say where or what hotel. The hotel manager did not speak much English, we did not speak much Italian,  everywhere he showed us he said we charge the beds every day,  up to the bedrooms,  this little girl took him at his word and went over a bed and stripped the bed the sheets were black we don't think had been changed for months,  exit one English travel Agent,  we never used the hotel,  I think Mother was too horrified to tell me off.
I will finish with this little story of the day she left me at home,  I had been seriously ill and not at school at the time,   but she had to do some shopping,  it was only for a short while,   the phone rang and this man wanted to book a holiday,   so I took down the details,  the holiday was for Inghams, and I knew Mr Ingham senior,  so I rang him and I got the holiday booked,  I was just about to ring the man back when mother walked in,  a bit horrified she checked I had done it correctly and rang the man back,  He said we were a funny firm he had to spell every word,   I can still see her standing there, saying "Well you were talking to my five year old".  I hope he enjoyed his holiday.
I was the most well travelled child at school.
Mother went around the world three times and there is only two countries she never visited which was Russia and Ireland.

Rest in Peace Mother
Margaret