Caroline Forbes

Dearest blog readers I must apologise for the lack of posts lately.

I've been so incredibly busy and now all I've got is a sad post about my dear friend Caroline who died a couple of weeks ago.

I had to tell you though about the funeral. The likes of which I've never seen before.

It's been snowing here for days and days and the roads are icy and hard to get through, I hadn't left enough time so I was running late. As I came into the town of Eye in Suffolk the traffic had slowed to a crawl and I was cursing stupid English drivers who grind to a halt when there's even the tiniest hint of snow. As we turned a corner though I realised why the traffic was so slow. We were following a horse and cart with four figures at its corners all dressed in black with top hats. We were following Caroline on her final journey. I parked the car and ran to catch up as the bier wound its way to the cemetery accompanied by drums and bells and maybe a hundred people.

It had been Caroline's wish to be buried without any plastic or metal or anything that left a footprint, so she was wrapped in a beautiful shroud of felt with leaves and acorns on it and buttoned with toggles of wood. The last stage of the journey was too slippery for the horse to carry her because of the snow, so her lovers and friends carried her the last bit of the way.
Her brother Michael officiated and read out a beautiful American Indian prayer and there was silence as she was lowered into the grave. Suddenly there appeared a tiny robin redbreast, hopping around in the snow, and it seemed it was greeting everone there, it hopped around the entire circle of people. Finally after we had all thrown a handful of dirt into the grave, it hopped right into the grave and came back out again with a worm. Caroline had red hair as you can see by her picture, exactly the same colour as a robyn's breast.

Until I met Caroline, I'd always had difficulty with authority figures but she was the most fantastic boss I could ever have wished for. She saw a potential in me that I never knew was there and encouraged me to be more than I'd ever been before. It seemed she was the same for hundreds of people.
Thank you Carolina.