Leone's Funeral Service
Got ready, caught all the right buses and (actually getting there early) went to Leone's service today down in Belmont.
I saw a number of faces that were familiar from Jenny's Funeral, roughly the same time last year) like Larry (Jenny's father) and Rudolf (Leone's husband), the aunty and the surviving sister. The church service was rather odd. Apparently no one had the Salvation Army officer much in the way of personal details about Leone. She had been a member of that branch, and done street work in Charlestown. He repeatedly ask for people to come up and speak. No one initially came forward, so I did.
Here I am, perhaps the one person there who knew her the least, getting up to talk about her. But I knew her through Jenny, and had a great deal of respect for her efforts in supporting Jenny; visiting her regularly in her flat and later in the nursing home; helping her sort out her finances and buying things; and generally letting Jenny know that she was still loved and supported. All that reminded me of what my mother did for my father when he wasted away in a nursing home for six years after a double-stroke. It is no easy thing to do, to see someone you love and care about slowly get worse in front of you.
After I got up and spoke, others did as well (including Jenny's sister in law), and it was clear that throughout her life she'd supported and cared about others, despite her own problems. Not just her own family and friends, but others as well. After the service there was a short ceremony at a cemetary, but I had no car, but a friend of the daughter gave me a lift and back.
Leone was buried in the same grave as her mother, and Jenny's ashes. This was not far from Susan's grave. Susan was her daughter (and Jenny's sister) who, with the grandmother, was killed in a car crash back in 1969. from. Jenny sometimes spoke of it still with great grief, and it was obvious to me that this was a family tragedy which no one in the family recovered from.
Afterwards we returned to the church for a reception though I didn't stay long. Later in the day I went window shopping at Belmont, Jesmond and Wallsend. I really didn't want to go straight back home from the funeral, even though I was offered a lift straight home. Went to a couple of libraries, borrowed stuff, and bought some wine on the way home. I polished off a whole bottle of Chiraz tonight and slept it off until a few hours ago. Don't normally drink - this was in Leone's honour.
The likelihood is that I probably won't hear from anyone in this family again. I will probably visit Ron taking Bobby with me, but my point of contact with any of them was Jenny, and with Jenny's mother gone, that is much less likely. Actually in many ways my knowledge of Leone is fragmentary and a big like an onion - I kept learning things only after the event. When Jenny was alive I only knew her as "Jenny's Mum" because that's how she introduced herself. It wasn't until Jenny's funeral that I learnt her name was Leone. It wasn't until I discovered the Xmas card she'd sent me (two days after Rudolf called to say she'd died, and my last conversation on the phone had been about whether I'd received it or not)) that I knew her surname (it was on the envelope) and today I learnt that Leone was her middle name (Daphne being her first).
In fact there is very little that I do know about her, but what I did know earned her my respect and admiration. May she rest in peace.