Celebrating Wendy's life

This week I've been preparing for the Celebration we are planning for Friday 11 February. So far, in response to targeted invitations, there are 66 people who have said they intend to come; if even only half actually show up, we will have a credible number in the memorial chapel at the funeral home. I invited the vicar of St Matthias church to open the ceremony but she is unfortunately unable to join us, so it will be an entirely secular event. That seems fitting. I don't believe in any god, or in any variation on the theme of an afterlife, and for the past 10-15 years Wendy had joined me in the ranks of unbelievers, even if she was not as committed as I am to genuine atheism. So the Celebration is going to be very casual and informal as well as free of prayers and hymns. With helpful suggestions from Rebecca, I've prepared a souvenir of the occasion to give to our guests; on the front there's a photo of Wendy with her dates of birth and death, etc; inside I've reproduced a few of her poems, and on the back there is a proud statement of some of her accomplishments and the official photo of her receiving the Governor General's Caring Canadian award. I've expanded on this in notes I've prepared for my talk, which will probably open the Celebration. The kids will follow me with their remarks, then as master of ceremonies I will invite members of the audience to say whatever they wish about Wendy. If the audience proves to be tongue-tied, I have a back-up, quotations from condolence cards, emails etc. Today Rebecca and I looked at the slide show that one of Rebecca's colleagues has prepared for us, with a sound track made up of a mixture of bird songs and lovely Armenian songs sung by Isobel Bayrakdarian. This will be on a DVD that we can send to the families in New Zealand and Australia. Tomorrow we will all go to the funeral home to go over the details with the funeral director. Stay tuned for more on this in future postings,