January 7 - Pauline's funeral

Pauline's funeral was held in Chelsea Heights followed by afternoon tea at the Chapel and the Wake at Gayle's house.

Gayle arranged the funeral by herself. She'd spent so much time in the hospital with her Mum during the treatment and they had discussed what Pauline wanted her funeral to be like. Gayle did a brilliant job of organising it. Pauline would be very proud.

The flowers in this photo are all from Pauline's garden. She loved her garden and was very proud of it. She had transformed it since moving there. Gayle and Bryan went to Pauline's house (about 3.5 hours drive) a few days before the funeral to select the flowers to be picked by Kevin (Pauline's hubby & Gayle's step-father) to bring to Melbourne for the funeral. The idea was that the family would sit down together to make bouquets to put on the coffin but it wasn't working out. Then the doorbell rang. It was a lady from the CFA (Country Fire Authority which my brother Bryan is a volunteer fire fighter) Auxillary delivering flowers on behalf of the CFA. She could see that Gayle was having trouble with the flowers and offered to help. She then said she was a florist which was such a relief for Gayle. The lady did a great job. It was so nice to see Pauline's own flowers presented so beautifully and professionally.

As I mentioned above the Wake was at Gayle's. It was also the last day of the 3rd Cricket test against South Africa. In our very Aussie way, we ate sausage rolls and mini quiches (and other food), drank beer and wine and watched the exciting end to the cricket. By the way, Australia won the game but lost the series 2-1.