A long session composing all of the funeral invitations, but also breaking off to successfully tackle the errant motorcyclist that had been using the footpath and apparently demolished the style, involving the police and HDC accordingly.
Diana and the girls took advantage of the warm and sunny day and gone off for a day's enjoyment at Wicksteed Park.
This day was dominated by the need to get the details of the funeral off to the long list of family and friends but first I had breakfast with the family and then had to attend to Sam. It was and I took him along the Hayling Path to the Little Paxton Nature Reserve to see if the nightingale was still singing which it was. I was annoyed to find that a stile had been sawn through and removed and immediately suspected the motorcyclist from number 69 Gordon Road that I had heard and seen motor-cycling past our house on the footpath after midnight last night and with whom I had remonstrated with recently.
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I called St Neots police on my return and reported both the criminal damage and the illegal riding on the footpaths; telling the police operator to inform Huntingdonshire District Council about the stile as they run the nature reserve. I had a call from the Countryside Officer, John Ellwell, later who ascertained which stile it was and then went out and repaired it before I went back with Sam in the evening. The local police constable called round and we agreed a plan of campaign to catch and convict the culprit. To send my funeral notices, I first had to agree the list of addressees as it would be as bad to overlook one as to send an invitation to another whose death we should have been aware of.
I spoke to Freda at length and also the site office of Stanton Grove Park and ended up with as good a list as we were going to get. I then had to update the list and was pleased to find the old one still in my computer database. It took a few hours to hand write all of the envelopes as Diana and the girls were not available, having taken advantage of the weather and gone off for a day's enjoyment at Wickstead Park. I eventually managed to post them all first class by 4.00pm so as to arrive tomorrow or Wednesday.
I even sent "aerogramme" letters to addresses in the United States and Australia. More funeral formalities as I sent the burial plot certificate to the Parish Clerk and the disposal certificate to the funeral directors and then, after meeting the Rev Peter Lewis this evening to discuss the order of service, I could say that the funeral planning was complete. I had calls from my Liberal Democrat colleagues today and had to tell them about my bereavement and inability to help in the short term. After meeting the vicar, Debbie went to bed for an early night but Della stayed up late, working on her project and speech that she should have prepared ages ago for her return to school tomorrow.