Menorial Momentarium

After spending the festive season plus two weeks at The Hutch, it was time to load up The Grey gain and turn his wheels once more towards the northeast of this Bonny Land. The weather had been - predictably - grim and somewhat discouraging for travel, to be honest. I decided to take a different route, one which would offer greater safety by gritting roads for ice and having plenty of traffic passing in case of needing help.

I spent my first night out at a place called Alva. It has a large park/playground area with free parking, and it was the perfect spot to begin this trip. No photos because I arrived in the dark, and then the following day, everything was obscured by fog. 

The next leg of the journey brought me to the now very familiar Friockheim. Tuesday and Wednesday nights were spent there. Thursday morning, a full charge for Grey at The Hub before we headed north to Aberdeen - specifically, Hazlehead Park. There is lots of free parking and no overnight parking restriction. I hadn't intended to arrive a day early, but there had been a great deal of notice about the threat of Storm Eowyn. Said storm arrived early on Friday morning. Thankfully, there wasn't too much in the way of rain with it, or it would have been downright miserable for the walkers... Nobby's new pawrents had brought him up to meet with us all and to walk in the park before the humans all gathered in the cafe. I got to say hello and give him an ear tickle before they headed off for that.

You can read a report from Nobby's side of things on his blog today! 

Inside the cafe, Gail's brother Max had organised a gathering to celebrate Gail's life. Once everyone had settled down, he began proceedings with a reminiscence of his time with Gail as an older brother, who found in her a competitor for many of the physical things (notably cycling!). He managed to elicit a few smiles and a few moments of poignancy. 

Next, Yvonne, Gail's long-term neighbour and friend, read a poem. (You can read the poem at this link.) It spoke to Gail's compassionate, humanitarian side. For quite some time, she was an active member of Amnesty International.

There was a short sharing of memories then from "M," the lady of the "J and M," with whom Nobby and Gail spent many happy days walking around Deeside. "M" was very complimentary of Gail's German language skills, as she herself was of German birth. Fond memories, too, of all the dogs, from Hamish the Westie to beloved Bertie and, latterly, Nobby.

A work colleague, keen walker and cycling companion, John, took up the memoirs then. Words on Gail's excellent team leadership skill, physical prowess on their 'leisure' outings, and her ability to cut to the heart of the matter on things. 

This was followed by a short clip of images from all her different stages in life and a toast to her memory. At this point, everyone turned to each other and shared hugs, handshakes, a tear or two, and lots of smiles as we settled down to light refreshments and lots of chit-chat. There were eight tables, not all completely filled. I counted 54 present in the room and learned later that there were 31 on the Teams live stream. A healthy turnout!

Before we knew it, four o'clock had arrived, and it was time to depart. This was a protracted affair, as many folk lingered, still wanting to share. There had been much movement around the room as everyone sought to connect and put faces to names. Dru went to get Nobby, and the cafe manager let him come into the room as everything was being dismantled. She brought out treats and water for him, and all of us who had been connected with the wee fellow sought his attention. I got to share some of those treats with him. My thanks to Dru for taking this image...

Lots of fond farewells, then it was back to the van to decompress. It has been a very long time since I was amongst quite so many people at such close quarters, and I was feeling very tired and a tad overwhelmed. There was, however, a sense of peace and closure. It had been the perfect event to complete a cycle of what, I now recognised, had been quite profound grief. 

The event was not entirely over for me, however. Staying parked at Hazlehead that night meant that on Saturday morning, when Dru had realised that she'd left an item behind on Friday, there was a message asking if I was in the van, as they'd parked just two cars along from me - hoorah! Sadly, Dru's item had not been handed in, so she had to shrug that one off, but the bonus was that we got to spend the best part of an hour together - which we hadn't been able to do the day before. We talked Nobby, we talked Gail, we talked each other... it was a grand session and I was thrilled! 

Nobby was quite happy in the van. He refamiliarised himself, then went into the front and snoozed while we two-leggers got acquainted. I showed Dru the Blogger dashboard and discussed blogging a little more. She is going to look into it a bit more and decide whether it is something she really wants to take on - or whether we continue as we have already begun with her sending reports, and I load them up to the blog. Either way, be assured, we will still be able to keep tabs on our favourite WFT!!!

As we waved goodbye, my heart was lighter than it had been since October. Now, onto life with no Gail in it...