I didn't know this poem. How beautiful ... and appropriate. x

JENNIE'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION 27/11/2020 As luck would have it, the amelanchier tree we arranged for Jennie in the Golders Green Remembrance Garden was planted just before her birthday. So it was the perfect time for going to find the site, inter the rest of her ashes, and to celebrate and share memories of her. The weather was perfect, though the mood started off rather sombre and sad. The poem by Christina Rossetti, below, was beautifully read by Anna. But as we recollected so many of the madcap things we had done together the mood lifted and we were soon larking about and channelling the spirit of Jennie, as the photos show... ECHO by Christina Rossetti Come to me in the silence of the night; Come in the speaking silence of a dream; Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright As sunlight on a stream; Come back in tears, O memory, hope and love of finished years. O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter-sweet, Whose wakening should have been in Paradise, Where souls brim-full of love abide and meet; Where thirsting longing eyes Watch the slow door That opening, letting in, lets out no more. Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live My very life again though cold in death; Come back to me in dreams, that I may give Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, As long ago, my love, how long ago.

On Wednesday 5 August Jennie's immediate family gathered to inter her ashes under the apple trees at her home in Sussex, where she had made a wonderful garden. It is her final resting place, in accordance with her wishes. I offered up a simple dedication as follows: “In early March this year, Jennie and I came down to the barn. It was springtime, and she wanted to see the spring flowers at West Dean Gardens. She was very ill, but quite determined to walk, with my help, all around the grounds. On the way we stopped for lunch at the Weald and Downland Museum cafe. There she picked out 5 natural primrose plants. I asked her why they were for, and she told me they were to plant under our apple trees. I was a bit surprised, but indulged her whim. What I didn’t know is that she had already decided that they were to decorate her final resting place under the apple trees in her beloved garden. Only a month later, when she told me that was where she wanted her ashes to be placed, did the primroses suddenly make sense. This place meant a great deal to Jennie. It is endowed with so much natural beauty and tranquility. It is also suffused with her presence, not least through the great skill, care and devotion she put into creating this magnificent garden. It is a place we can enjoy today, and will all be enjoying for a long time to come. Jennie lives on in all our hearts and in our memories. But this will always be a special place for us to remember Jennie, knowing that it is here she has found her final peace, in the place she loved so very much.”