Thursday 29 November 2012

Overheard



Two old ladies sitting over their pub lunch, a bottle of wine between them, the level well down.
They are discussing the funeral of a mutual friend of theirs.

"Nice turnout and plenty of good hymns. I enjoyed that. I like a nice funeral."

"Yes, me too. Molly had a good life, 92 and not a day’s illness.”

"She was never the same again after that time she went to visit her family in America and crashed her car on the way home from the airport.”

"That was only two years ago, game old girl, wasn’t she? Do you remember the time she got on the wrong plane? That was in America too.”

"Or the time we were supposed to meet her in Mellington and she drove all the way to Newtown, after she’d missed the turn-off?”

"Yes, she was a one, that Molly. But coming home from the airport, crashing her car on the A49, and then opening her front door and finding the place flooded, that was too much for her. She never really got over that, you know. I’d have died of shock there and then."

"Hadn’t she forgotten to switch the boiler off before she left?”

"Yes, she told me herself. Always cheerful and head like a sieve, our Molly."

The ladies lift their glasses in tribute to their friend and smile.

"Didn’t she have a marvellous death, though? Simply went to sleep and never woke up. Marvellous.
That’s the way I’d love to go. It was lucky her daughter came round to see how she was. She found her dead in bed, all peaceful. Marvellous."

The ladies sip and smile again.

After a while, one of them says, "yes, a marvellous death. That’s what I’d like for myself too. Mind you, I would hope they'd find me before I start to smell."

For some reason the ladies find this remark hilarious. Spluttering and flushing bright scarlet, their faces low over the table, foreheads almost touching, they collapse into uncontrollable giggles. All subsequent words are drowned in laughter.


I was tempted to ask if they do funeral orations.





60 comments:

  1. It's nice to hear people talking about death without overwhelming fear and sadness.

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  2. How lovely.

    My father always hoped he would be shot by a lovers jealous husband ...

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  3. I still think my husband would have chosen to die the way he did - completely out of the blue, with no time for fear or pain, out of a life he loved, in our living room with his favourite program on TV.
    Those two ladies showed the right spirit in relation to their friend's death! (Although there really is no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to our reacting to death)

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  4. Love the indomitable spirit of those ladies!

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  5. It was always my father's goal to run out of money and breath on the same day. Fortunately, there was enough money left to take care of my mother who also perished because of an auto accident. The accident itself didn't do her in, the pneumonia from a cracked sternum was the culprit. But like your ladies, she live a good life to a ripe old age and died in her sleep. Should we all be so lucky.
    I now find myself in the uncomfortable position of being the second oldest in the family and possibly the next to go (although, God willing, there should be about 20 years left). Isn't it funny how your perspective changes as you can see the end of the tunnel?

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  6. smiles....cute...and def sounds authentic...we all deal with death a bit different....a magnificent death....i want one of those when my time comes....

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  7. What a great story, and one I'm glad you overheard and shared with all of us.

    FlowerLady

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  8. A story that warms the heart and makes you say, 'Cheers, Molly'!

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  9. Oh Friko - I started laughing too - always brings the worst out in us doesn't it .. but sounds like Molly was well loved, and those two old friends are continuing on strong - bet their laughter adds a few years to their lives ..

    Great story .. loved it - so British ... cheers Hilary

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  10. Ha! Good one
    Lively girls
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  11. I would have liked to be Molly, hanging around those two. I bet she would've joined in the giggles.

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  12. Great post, Molly sounds like she was good fun despite being a little forgetful :-) Take care diane

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  13. My husband just came back here to the den to see what was so funny. I could barely read this aloud to him, Friko. Molly sounds like quite a character, full of spirit. I think we all know someone akin to her, or at least composites of her, who are " Always cheerful and head like a sieve". May we all rest in peace before we start to smell.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Penny, thank you for your comments on my blog. I have tried to find you to return the favour, but can see no way of getting through to you. Do you have a blog?

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    2. Friko, this is Penny from the Cutoff under her full name. It foxed me too for a while.

      http://lifeonthecutoff.wordpress.com/

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  14. oh this was good!
    and I had a friend like this
    and she would have loved this too
    I still think of her and miss her wild ways
    ....and yes these ladies are truly enjoying the spirit of it all
    and Molly is laughing behind the curtain

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  15. Thanks for listening and sharing! Great dialogue!

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  16. I love your Conversations Overheard. They're all around us, but so often a Listener is nowhere nearby. These two old gals have a great attitude!

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  17. Delightful ladies and hope for similar sentiments at my funeral. Surpressed funeral giggles however are impossible to control. The more you try to repress them, the louder they get. Best to let them rip like they did or you could explode. I have been guilty many times.

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  18. What a wild, beautiful lady Molly had to be! These two giggling gals should orate my funeral. Absolutely wonderful! I'm sure they toasted their pal. Great blog. Hilary Melton Butcher put me onto your lovely blog. :-)

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  19. Ja, so möchte man gern in Erinnerung bleiben, immer gut für einen Plausch beim Schnaps. Ich war mal bei einer Beerdigung eines 40jährigen Mannes, dessen drei Verlobte (!) Arm in Arm trauerten und sich kondolieren ließen. Schön, Deine Beobachtung, Friko! Wie geht es Dir? Ich hab leider Deine e-mail Adresse verloren (nämlich ALLE), aber ich winke einfach hier mal wieder. Fröhlichen Advent! Angela

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  20. I laughed out loud reading this story. Thank you for listening, for remembering, and for sharing it! Let's raise a glass to Molly and her friends!

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  21. Wine, grief and memories. May we all have friends that salute us so nicely! Molly sounds like she was an adventurer, which I like.

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  22. "Hadn’t she forgotten to switch the boiler off before she left?” I laughed all time I read your post! You're well and say thank to Milly.

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  23. Serendipitous this post as I wrote about a friend who died yesterday. Wheeee...
    XO
    WWW

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  24. I'd love to be one of them. ~Mary

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  25. Sounds like these ladies (Molly when she was there too) have shared many giggles of hilarity over the years on all sorts of subjects.
    Ah the intimacy and freedom that comes with old and true friendships!

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  26. Her head like a sieve...I loved that. Thanks for sharing.
    Balisha

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  27. Oh, Friko, this sounds like a conversation out of an Agatha Christie novel. Some things never change, and I have a feeling old ladies in English villages are one of those things! "I do love a good funeral." LOL
    I don't want to die unexpectedly, in bed or otherwise. I've always said I want two weeks' notice, so I can arrange things, especially my house, nicely. I want to talk to my nieces, and to my brothers, and even to my husband, who ought to know already because he lives here, but doesn't pay much attention.
    It would be nice to be 90-something and still have my wits about me, though.
    I really enjoyed this. Thanks!
    Luv, K

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  28. Welch gelungene Art Angst zu bekämpfen.

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  29. I'm raising a glass right now to those ladies and to Molly!

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  30. Here's to Molly! And...also, here's a toast to you, dear Friko, because I think that perhaps all of this transcript might not have been only overheard. Your way with dialogue is superb.

    You've now given lots of us a launching pad from which to contemplate our our own verse lyrics to that tune After You've Gone. Clearly Molly was remembered and missed.

    xo

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  31. I was giggling, too!! What a great couple of old ladies to eavesdrop upon. ;)

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  32. What a nice way to be remembered -- with funny stories and laughter! I loved this post! I hope to die - at a ripe old age, of course -- as everyone in my parental generation did: suddenly. My Aunt Molly was the best: she was dressed for lunch with a friend and was a bit more than half way through that day's New York Times crossword and getting everything right.

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  33. As a foolish youth, I looked despairingly past the common folk around me for great people who would KNOW important things, Say & Do important things.

    I have lately learned, that Important Types are most often awful people - and that, as you show here, great hearts, soul, and humor is abroad among us common average humans.

    Thanks for being MY companion through this thing we call life and laughs, Friko


    Aloha Wishes
    from Honolulu
    Comfort Spiral

    ~ > < } } ( ° >

    > < 3 3 3 ( ' >

    ><}}(°> ~

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  34. I really enjoyed your post. You always have such interesting subjects to talk about. You also have a knack to find yourself in the right place at the right time to hear unusual discussion.

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  35. It sure sounds like Molly was loved and will be remembered well. I'll bet she was laughing right along with them. What a great conversation to overhear.

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  36. What a marvellous story. Really brought a smile to my face. Why shouldn't death be fun :-)
    Di
    xxxx

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  37. Yes, why shouldn't we go out the same way we lived? Dianne

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  38. Yes, that's how I would like to go too. And please find me too before I start to smell. Funny ladies. The wine may have had something to do with the hilarity.

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  39. Loved this! It had me giggling too - and I haven't had a drop of wine yet!

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  40. Over years of taking funerals, I've heard many similar conversations, but this is something special. :-) Lucky Molly to be remembered with such affection and humour is part of the life she shared with her friends.

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  41. How lovely to have a conversation about death and laugh.

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  42. You have such a knack for putting us in the situation! That was a very funny account - I'm still chuckling. I hope I'm found before I smell, too ;)

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  43. Overheard at a friend's funeral, about ten years ago and never forgotten: "Uh-huh. That's right, for sure. Give 'em a corpse and some potato salad, and those Baptists can really put on a funeral!"

    I know this - I'm quite fond of Molly and her friends, and the next time I have a bottle of something open, I'll raise a glass to them all!

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  44. That's absolutely brilliant...'twould do Monty Python proud. I imagine Molly would have loved this conversation, too. Christine

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  45. so cute! might as well laugh about death as it'll get all of us.

    congrats on your POTW, friko!

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  46. a wonderful irreverence!!
    congrats on POTW

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  47. Molly was indeed a chipper old gal. I love they way her friends reminisced about her life. She was loved in spite of having a head like a sieve. I think if we could choose our own passing, we would all go that way!

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  48. Oh, I want to be like Molly . . . quick and painless . . . old friends laughingly sharing stories!

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  49. Dear Friko, I have to confess that I broke out laughing aloud--a real belly laugh--when I read the last line of the dialogue between the two women. They really told us a lot about "our Molly." She was one heck of a survivor is what I'd say.

    This past summer, my neighbor across the street who was 89 died and his body wasn't discovered for about five days--according to the medical examiner. We all felt bad realizing that he was lying there and no one knew. His daughters were distraught.

    So this does happen and it's concerning. I have one young friend (29) who calls me each day to check that I'm okay. I'm grateful for that. Just as these two women, I suspect, are grateful for "our Molly." Peace.

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  50. What a delightful conversation on which to eavesdrop! I'm laughing out loud, too. Our Molly sounds like quite a woman -- may she rest in peace!

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