Undertaking Love Page 0,89
start arriving soon.’
Jonny eyed Emily’s bump with a frown as they filed through the vestry and out into the cool winter sunshine.
‘I wish you’d hurry up and have that bloody baby. I’m sick of lurking outside every time I want a fag.’
Emily smiled at him sweetly.
‘I’m sorry to inconvenience your legs, but my child says thank you.’
He shot her a sarcastic look as he wandered off towards the old graves at the back of the chapel gardens.
Tom sauntered up the High Street in his dark suit and joined their little huddle. He slid an arm around Emily’s shoulders and dropped a kiss on her cheek.
‘All set?’
‘I think so,’ Marla nodded as Jonny reappeared at her side. It struck her how sombre a tableau they made, a huddle of black against the stark white chapel.
They looked up in unison as Gabe appeared momentarily on the street outside the funeral parlour. He glanced their way with a tiny nod of acknowledgment, before disappearing again through the side gate.
‘Is it terribly bad form to find the undertaker sexy?’ Jonny murmured. ‘Sorry, Dora.’ He crossed himself as he cast his eyes to the skies in apology.
‘You won’t like him so much when he puts you out of a job next summer,’ Marla muttered with unnecessary acidity, mainly because very similar thoughts had invaded her own head at the sight of Gabe. It frustrated the hell out of her that the mad chemist in her gut refused to listen to the cool voice of reason in her head.
Today was going to be a long, long day.
By midday the chapel was packed to the rafters with mourners. Marla hovered outside the door and sent a discreet nod towards Tom, who stood sentry in the funeral-parlour doorway.
He disappeared inside, and moments later Ivan stepped out onto the pavement to lead his wife on her final journey. Dora’s casket followed, borne on the steadfast shoulders of Gabe, Tom, Jonny and Dan. A painful lump rose in Marla’s throat as she watched them match their pace to Ivan’s. They made a slow and dignified procession, and she had to acknowledge that they all looked magnificent with a yellow hellebore pinned to the lapel of their black jackets. Marla glanced down at the matching flower corsage around her wrist, the only splash of colour against her simple Jackie-O-style black dress.
Who knew that Ivan had such a romantic soul? Only Dora.
She looked up as Ivan approached the chapel doorway and reached out for his hands.
‘Are you alright?’ she asked.
He squeezed her fingers for a few seconds then stepped inside the chapel. She swallowed hard and met Gabe’s eyes without rancour as he drew alongside her. Today wasn’t the time for discord, a fact brought home by the strains of the wartime love song ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ that floated from the chapel speakers.
Emily and Marla had both shed a tear yesterday as they listened to the simple love song Ivan had requested, made all the more sentimental by the crackle and hum from the stylus of the old record player Jonny had hunted down for the occasion.
The four men placed Dora’s casket carefully in its place before the altar and then took their seats. All except Jonny, who stepped up to the lectern and stood silent with his head bowed until the last strains of the music ebbed away.
He drew a deep breath, and on behalf of Ivan, thanked the congregation for coming. Everyone in the church had their own memories of Dora, and Jonny enriched them as he shared a little of Dora’s early life. How she’d been the last surviving member of seven children, and of how devastated she’d been to lose her beloved eldest brother Billy when he went down with HMS Courageous during the Second World War. Many of the elderly congregation bowed their heads, their own wartime losses ever close to their hearts.
Jonny’s affection for Dora shone star-bright in his every word. He made many of the congregation cry with his heartfelt anecdotes gathered from Dora’s many friends, and gentle laughter rippled around the chapel as he recounted a memorable day last winter when she’d tumbled down the step into the local shoe shop. She’d knocked over every single rack as she gathered momentum like a bull in a china shop, completely trashing the place. He paused to allow people to settle again, and then wrapped up his speech with a simple acknowledgment of how large a hole Dora had left behind in the lives of all who