Sue and I made our way to South Dock Marina on the morning of Wednesday 19th March to meet our old friend Pedro Lewis, who had laid on a workboat. It was a good place to start as the marina is on the site of the old Surrey Commercial Docks where dad guarded the gates for much of his PLA police career.
We headed out onto the river at about 10.00am with the tide still making. The thirty or so minutes down to Greenwich passed quickly as we talked of people and boats we had known, some now dead or sunk. As we headed downriver the sun began to shine.
I remembered the spot where dad and I had scattered mum ashes twenty two years before and gave Pedro directions: "its just after the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel on the Isle of Dogs side, where you can see up through the naval college to the Queen's House and the Royal Observatory.
On reaching the spot Pedro stemmed the tide while I opened the little tin box containing dad's ashes at the stern of the workboat. I took out the paper bag and slipped the contents gently over the side. saying "goodbye dad". It was an oddly satisfying experience. Sue tried to take some photos of the floating ashes, but they quickly dispersed.
Afterwards we headed back upriver to South Dock and then Pedro drove us to Wapping, where I showed Sue the flat mum, dad and I used to live in before walking up to St Katherine Docks for some lunch in "the Dickens". A place dad had taken mum and I to in the mid 70s when it first opened.
"Bon voyage" old boy.
There is power and beauty in this simplicity. I do understand your feeling of satisfaction. It's a kind of rounding off. It's a strange moment that final letting go. Ashes to water seem more relevant to me than ashes to earth. Ebb and flow and a strong sense of movement away. We did that for my sister - who never learnt to swim - on a West Sussex beach when the tide was out and also in Sabino Canyon near where she lived. My sister and your dad will bump into each other in some small elemental way perhaps. Chance encounters never stop...
ReplyDeleteExactly. My mum too is in the mix and the day after the scattering I did a funeral at Lincoln Crematorium following which the ashes of the deceased were to be scattered on Skegness beach. For me these acts are far more meaningful than the drawing of the curtains around a coffin in a crem, which seems like a coy and cheap theatrical trick in comparison.
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