Love doesn’t end with dying

"Love doesn’t end with dying
Or leave with the last breath
For someone you’ve loved deeply
Love doesn’t end with death"

My Dad’s funeral was held on 12th May – three weeks after he died.

In those three weeks, we’d received as a family nearly 70 cards, and two dozen letters.

Over 150 mourners attended the funeral, including 15 Royal British Legion Standards. In addition to twenty floral tributes, we received over £250 of donations, in Dad’s name, to be split equally between the RNLI and RBL.

The presence of so many, and the letters and cards, was very touching.

My husband, Roarke, took the funeral service, which included some of Dad’s favourite pieces of music, a moving tribute from Roarke himself, and the RBL Exhortation read by Mr T Jobson OBE.

The funeral service sheet included several extracts from the letters of condolence, which I reproduce here in tribute to Dad:

Bill Bennett. A man much loved and admired as expressed through many letters of condolence, some extracts of which follow…

…Bill always seemed to be someone who would go the extra mile. He is going to be enormously missed by so many people and I am proud to have known him…

…a good and faithful servant has passed on. Bill’s contribution was consistent, dedicated and by the book. One could always rely on Bill as a safe pair of hands…

…Bill contributed much to the Royal British Legion and in so doing upheld the motto of the Legion “Service Not Self”. His presence will be sorely missed…

…if anyone relished and deserved a long and happy retirement it was Bill and it seems so unfair that he only had a short time…

…Words are inadequate to describe Bill’s tremendous commitment to the Legion and South East County in particular. Without doubt he was instrumental in keeping the county in being…
…Bill was a great comrade, servant and friend. He was always happy to help, to go the last mile…


I cannot believe how big a hole Dad’s passing has left in my life, and I am well aware that I am not coping very well with my grief. I seem stuck in the “denial” stage – shutting out reality is the only way that I seem to be able to cope.

Meanwhile, I am struggling to move house, educate the boys, catch up with my internet businesses, be a wife, a mother, and now a companion to Mum. I now have a house twice the size to keep clean, and a garden over 4 times as big to weed/garden.

Finally, I am still not back on broadband internet connection as that has been put back yet again by my supplier. So it looks like my websites will remain out of date, and slipping down the search engine results.

Normal service MAY be resumed soon…