This photo was taken in the garden at our home in New Brighton - the chubby blond is me aged 10 months.
I was called back from my post Christmas break in Geneva last week when my mother - Veronic Neilson - became suddenly unwell. It turned out to be a massive bleed on the brain and she died in the early hours of Friday 10th January. I returned in time to be at her bedside and administer the Last Rites.
Many thanks to so many people who have been in touch in various ways to offer their prayers and condolences.
Her Requiem Mass will take place on
Wednesday 22nd January
at
12 noon
at
Ss Peter and Paul's Church in New Brighton on the Wirral,
followed by burial at Frankby Cemetery.
(Any clergy coming are welcome to sit in choir
at what will be a Missa Cantata.
My thanks to the Canons there for their hospitality.)
Ss Peter and Paul's is the church where I made my first Holy Communion and where she was a member of the Union of Catholic Mothers many years ago.
There will be a Reception at the Hollins Hey Hotel,
accessed from Albion Street or Victoria Road in New Brighton,
which is near to the church.
1984 with my stepfather, Eric, and Michael Heseltine, visiting Liverpool in some connection with the International Garden Festival (for those who can remember that far back!)
She looks as though she's taken some fashion advice from Bananarama here, which would be in character for her ideas on being in vogue!
Here she is dressed in the lighter colours
at my grandparents home in New Brighton,
together with my Auntie May.
The dapper young gent in the mini deerstalker is me
aged 2 and a half.
Requiescat in pace.
May holy Mary, the angels and the saints
come to meet her as she goes forth from this life.
