My mother's final words to me were "I'm awake, I'm awake", as we briefly visited her hospital bed to drop off some supplies and a cheer-you up-er at ST Helier, less than 6 hours before her passing at 1:43 AM on Friday 7th.
 
Many of you here today will know what a "cheer-you up-er" is, for anyone unaware of this, from time to time, Mary would send out cards or little gifts to cheer up her friends. We always had a box of little funny things we would collect every now and then, kept under the dining room table, ready for when they were needed.
Mary was never without a selection of cards for all occasions and a pen close to hand, and if we didn't have at least one book of first-class stamps in the house, Nicholas would be sent out, more often than not, in the cold & wet, for more supplies.
 
She always used to tell me, that it's terribly important to do these little things for other people, things like putting her wax seals on envelopes, I started using them too because she did, she actually delegated this task to me and I became quite good at it, she would insist on checking my work and if it was substandard I would get a ‘look’.... I've quite a collection of seals and wax now for different occasions, and for the record, we were using wax seals, long before Poldark came along and made it fashionable again in recent years. Pause for laughter...
 
Mary once tried to teach me to knit, it took a few weeks for us to finally realise why it wasn't working, as it turns out she was saying completely different things to what her hands were actually doing, she could quite literally knit in her sleep.....and she was absolutely convinced no knitting patterns or books contained errors, even though we know now that is not true - she would just read past the errors and corrected them in her head, or maybe it was just her hands knew better.
 
My mother built up an extensive library on an array of subjects, including history, archaeology and ancient Egyptian culture, a number of these books were dedicated to Tutankhamun in particular.
 
It was in one of these books, that I first learnt of their attitude towards death, being influenced by their belief in immortality. They regarded death as a temporary interruption, rather than the cessation of life. ... I read of their belief that everyone dies twice .... Once when you take your final breath, and then again, as someone says your name the last time. They believe your spirit lives on as long as people keep remembering you. So as long as we all keep talking about my mother, your friend, your colleague, Mary will always be around, doing what she always did, guiding us onward quietly from the background.
 
After this service is over, we take away from here her stories so her legacy will live on in all of you, every time we talk to people about her, tell anyone will who listen, about her and the little things she did for us all every day"