As I am now so you must be/Therefore prepare to follow me
Today to the funeral/memorial service of a former colleague at the West London Crematorium at Kensal Green Cemetery, which, alas, I did not have time to explore - it was the first large commercial cemetery set up in London at a time of pressing need for burial reform. Numerous notables are interred therein but I only noticed the gravestone of the last surviving veteran of Waterloo, a Russian orthodox priest who was apparently ministering to a Russian community in London around the 1830s, and the quite extraordinary monument of Alexis Soyer to his wife: His wife, generally known simply as Emma Jones, achieved considerable popularity as a painter, chiefly of portraits. She was one of the youngest persons to exhibit at the Royal Academy; in 1823, at the age of 10, she submitted the Watercress Woman. Her portrait of Soyer was engraved by Henry Bryan Hall. She died in 1842 following complications suffered in a premature childbirth brought on by a thunderstorm. Distraught, Soyer erected a monument to her at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
During the proceedings of the memorial, besides various personal tributes by family, friends, former colleagues etc there were pieces of music and readings, apparently chosen by the subject of the occasion.
This seems to me a reasonable, if perhaps somewhat morbid, thing to do - if a little reminiscent of Mother Durrell in My Family and Other Animals periodically declaring that she would like to be buried in some place or other, usually some place that would be really difficult of access.
Apparently people really do have Gracie Fields' Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye at their final sendoff but I don't know if this is would be their own wishes or the family/friends' decision. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2962162.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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