Recently, I led the service for the funeral of a boating enthusiast. He had had a wonderful working life that had taken him all over the world but especially Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai. Once retired and back in the UK, he decided he’d accrued enough money to treat his wife and himself to a new boat so they had one built. Their retirement saw them sailing from Chichester to Brittany, down the French coast and across the Bay of Biscay to A Coruña in Spain. Then down the coast of Portugal to Gibraltar, through the Mediterranean to Ibiza and Minorca before finally berthing in Palma in Mallorca. They stayed there for three glorious years, living the highlife on the high seas.
So, when it came to celebrating his life and apart from the ubiquitous ‘Sailing’ by Rod Stewart, the family had no immediate thoughts about poetry, readings or music. Nor did I…at first, until I did a little digging. I remembered a poem my Dad used to recite by heart when I was a little boy which I had really liked. It was called ‘Sea-Fever’ by John Masefield.
We used it and it worked really well. And we did have a picture tribute for the deceased to ‘Sailing’ by Rod Stewart and it was lovely. But, I wanted to end the service with something which combined this man’s love of the sea with a message of hope and comfort for the family that also avoided obvious religious language.
I found it! A piece of prose called ‘What is Dying?’ by Rev. Luther F. Beecher. The analogy of a boat leaving harbour and going on a voyage to somewhere unseen and far away, being welcomed on the other side and celebrated is lovely I think.
It was the perfect way to end my script for this service, celebrating a man who loved sailing and had had a wonderful life and a very special retirement.
I also found the perfect exit music in the shape of ‘Jamaica Farewell’ by Harry Belafonte whose lyrics were spot on again.
