LAST WORDS
I still have to decide on the place (perhaps simply at home), but here is what I would like to have for my guests: a lovely mixture of roses, preferably garden roses and in lilac (the Madiba rose is gorgeous), maybe with a red one here and there (the Ingrid Bergman in my garden smells amazing). If they’re in season, definitely a few peonies too. And then platters of delicious food that everyone can socialise around… figs, cheese, something pretty, something healthy, something decadent – the number is on my phone.
For background music, big-band jazz, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and without question Cesária Évora and Van Morrison. A little Edith Piaf and Pink Martini. And talking about pink – pretty pink gin and pink champagne. Everyone must have a wonderful time – we have so little time to see each other these days. Leave this part to the team – they know what to do.
No, these are not the plans for my next big birthday. It’s actually a conversation that I’ve already had a few times with my people about the planning of my memorial celebration, when that day (no doubt about it) happens. Because why would I want my final curtain call to be any different from how I always do things?
‘No, it’s too awful,’ is the reaction I usually get for this subject. The same as Dala and I hear from the rest of the team year after year when we suggest making memorials a part of our entertainment pages. Indeed, we have all attended enough of them to know what a difference it makes when it feels as though the ‘guest of honour’ had planned it themselves. Admittedly, after a
