Norfolk: A Visit and Funeral

In October, we had the rather sad news that Sean's nan was diagnosed with secondary cancer and failing fast, so we made a short notice decision to visit her the weekend after. It was really sad to see her so diminished as she used to be quite a sturdy lady. Despite it all she seemed in good spirits and was quite talkative for a while between catching her breaths. She was ever so happy to see us all, as we managed to coincide our visit with that of Sean's mum Paula and his sister Fiona. At some point, Paula mentioned that there were now four Scottish dancers in the room, because both she and her mum used to dance in younger years, I have been dancing for about two years now and Fiona started before the summer break. So more or less our last conversation with Elsie was sharing which ones were our favourite Scottish country dances! Eventually she grew too tired and so Paula and Fiona went back home while Sean and I had a look around town.

Elsie used to live in Sheringham on the Norfolk coast - quite pleasant to live perhaps but not much to see or do out of season. We had a look at the famous station which is done up Victorian style because the local steam tourist train stops there (of course not in October...) - quite cute, down to a stack of old luggage.
Then we went on to the seaside (buying a brollie on the way!) but the weather was really too sharp and the grey-brown sea was in, so there was no beach to walk on anyway.
So instead we found a cute little teahouse right overlooking the sea. It was called "Whelk Coppers", a reference to its history: it used to be three fishermen's cottages and the site around them was used to boil "Whelks" in big "Coppers" (copper cauldrons) to prepare them for the market in London. Whelk fishing was a major industry in Sheringham up to WW2.
The conversion of the cottages made what was reputedly one of the finest houses in town, and indeed the inside it beautiful: panelled floor to ceiling with carved Indian Teak, reputedly taken from an 1830's naval frigate. It was a stylish and cosy place to have a good old high tea with Darjeeling and tea cakes.
But that was about all that could be done in Sheringham and so we decided to drive in the general direction of home and see if there was anything to visit on the way. We stopped at Castle Acre, a ruined castle only a few hundred yards off the road we followed. Although just a provincial castle and a ruin it was still imposing, and also refreshingly open to visitors without gates, fees or restrictions so it was nice to just climb around the earthworks.
Plaques told us the history and showed drawings and sketches of what the complete buildings would have looked like, and also pointed out some of the rare chalkland wildflowers growing on the site. This one is a Small Scabious.
We spent a good hour rambling and climbing around and reading all the plaques - unfortunately, it was too late to visit the nearby abbey ruin by then. However, the journey home was adventurous, too, as Sean chose to take a shortcut out of the village to another road further South - but near the brook at the bottom of valley the road appeared to be completely flooded. We only had the little Smart car and the "puddle" seemed rather like a river to be forded which seemed a dubious manoevre. But as the photo is taken out the rear window you can see that we made it through...
And later on the motorway we were treated to a fantastic sunset (difficult to believe that we had started out the journey in the morning with torrential rains!).
Our second visit to Norfolk - precisely to Norwich on the 3rd of November - was in a more sombre mood as we were going to Elsie's funeral, held at the local crematorium. It was a drafty morning and cold in their chapel, and of course the occasion was sad, but nonetheless everybody seemed in reasonably good spirits and there were not too many tears. The service was short, with Paula reading the eulogy - a lot about Scotland, dancing and music, and I felt that I would have been more appropriately dressed in my highland costume... That would have been a nice touch, picking up on my last conversation with Elsie. We sang "Love Divine" but nobody seemed to know the music they used and it felt like I was the only person singing. Then all the close family had been invited to read a verse or poem (see below for mine). Afterwards, we all went to a country inn down the road for the wake with ample coffee and tea and a nice little finger buffet. It was lovely to see Sean's maternal relatives whom we don't meet very often (they all seem to live in Dorset and Somerset and I hadn't seen them since our wedding nearly 10 years ago!), and to share some old photos...

She is Gone
(Read out at the Queen Mother's Funeral)

You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she's gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she'd want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.