Obsequy

Today I will officiate at the obsequies of my friend Alan who died on Christmas Day. A regular hobbit of man! Worrying in his habits and his perception of the world, yet strangely courageous and gentle; generous to a fault even to the point of foolishness.
Only Christians and romantics would find this combination attractive I think.
A sometime writer and wit, who drank and smoked too much for his own good. And who has been spared the years of suffering that modern medicine could have brought him.
His great gift to me, apart from his many kindnesses and generosities was to join me in the morning so that the prayer of the Church could be corporate, said together. He had no need, no requirement to do this...as I have as a priest.....he did it because he wanted to.
One of those men who with better opportunity for schooling and furthering his education could have been quite remarkable...because he thought well, thoroughly and carefully...and yet the spirit of the age and the demands of life, the scourge of a World War, denied many those opportunities. He would not have thought of it like that. He would have thought his life went well, he would have said...I have had quite a good life, and I've enjoyed it, I've done what I could.
Not spared the heartache of the world: drought, and rural decline, marriage breakdown, mental illness, the struggle with alcohol and lungs ravaged by tobacco...and finally a general breakdown of his health.
On Christmas Day, he sat down and died.