Today we set off to travel to Sydney for my Dad's funeral. He would have been 86 today and he and Mum celebrated 65 years of happy marriage this year. He played the organ for 61 years! BUT he knew that the Eucharist and having faith and love were more important than the singing and playing.
Please pray for all our family at this time. His funeral is at Christ Church St Laurence Sydney at 2 p.m. on Wednesday Aug 30 which happens to be St Margaret Clitherow's day. Dad (Herbert Woodhouse) was born in York in 1920 and very proud to be a York man and friend of Francis Jackson whose music will be played and sung. I rang Dr Jackson and he was so kind. He was clearly delighted that Dad had chosen his music along with music by Bairstow (who Dad met when he was a boy) and E.G.Monk.
May God help us to do it all well. Praise the Lord! The Salvation Army speak of "promoted to glory" - I like that! I sang in Rachmaninoff "The Bells" at the Proms this evening and the conductor said to me that it was a fitting tribute to my Dad. It was a wonderful experience and I have the video from BBC4 to share with the family. What I am going to miss is Dad's constant encouragement and love. He would type a letter giving his comments on the recordings I sent him from church and concert hall and they were always helpful! He was so proud of all of us. May he rest in peace. Play the 64 foot Dad!
Thank you all for your prayers. My Mum passed away peacefully on the Monday after we arrived. She really wanted to be with Dad - they had been married for 65 years and never apart. She said she had No regrets and was so happy. The double funeral was very beautiful and the music and liturgy were as Dad wanted. We changed the last hymn to Mum's favourite "Forth in thy name O lord I go".
We are so glad that we travelled to Sydney to support my sister Ann and her family. Thank you all.
John
On Sunday January 28th at 3 p.m. Mum and Dad's ashes will be interred at St John's, Auckland Road, Upper Norwood. This is a splendid Pearson Anglican church with a fine Lewis organ where they worshiped when visiting us. Singers rehearse at 2 p.m. and the memorial Mass will be at 3 p.m. All welcome but please RSVP. The music was all chosen by Dad and reflects his long connection with York Minster - Jackson, Bairstow.
I am off sick for 2 weeks with stress and grief - Christmas is going to be really hard for me - all those memories - so lots of prayers please.
All went well on Sunday apart from one thing! Despite all the discussions and checking of the booklet, there was a misunderstanding about who was actually printing the booklets so I had to nip home to get the originals so that copies could be made. In the end 55 copies were needed! I did a display of items which had come from Australia including Dad's FTCL hood and the organ pipe presented to him by the Hobart Guild of Organists. There were lots of photographs and examples of his compositions, even his cap and RAF scarf. And Mum was not forgotten either!
Revd Beverley Mason spoke movingly about them and said "Who could doubt where Herbert and Olive are now? After leading such good lives in which they brought the light and love of Christ to so many, they can depart in peace" Well done good and faithful servants! The choir was superb and all the family took part either singing or reading. Dad had chosen the texts so carefully. This is so important at a funeral. It may be the deceased's favourite item but will it comfort the bereaved? And now joy of joys our daughter is to be married in August so at last I get to walk down the aisle with her on my arm after playing for so many weddings! The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord! And thank God for all those wonderful people who have sustained us and will continue to do so I know.
And oh yes I got through all the services OK! Just at the end of Midnight Mass I felt the emotions welling up as I reached the final chords of Bach's Fantasia on "In dulci jubilo" and I said "I did it, Dad!" I can recommend Turvey Abbey as a good place for a quiet retreat. It's great having monks and nuns joining together to sing the liturgy as a man's voice is so obvious when only women are singing! And I loved the simple but beautiful Blessed Sacrament chapel. I never feel comfortable in some chapels - is one supposed to kneel all the time? Always feels terribly pi At Turvey one could sit quietly and just feel the love and warmth surround you. And I also went to Worth to see dear Father Charles who is so wise. I found I needed to talk! God bless spiritual advisers and counsellors everywhere! Has it occurred to you that God uses musicians to comfort people, by their music and their words and above all by their lives?
He would have been 86 today and he and Mum celebrated 65 years of happy marriage this year. He played the organ for 61 years! BUT he knew that the Eucharist and having faith and love were more important than the singing and playing.
His funeral is at Christ Church St Laurence Sydney at 2 p.m. on Wednesday Aug 30 which happens to be St Margaret Clitherow's day. Dad (Herbert Woodhouse) was born in York in 1920 and very proud to be a York man and friend of Francis Jackson whose music will be played and sung. I rang Dr Jackson and he was so kind. He was clearly delighted that Dad had chosen his music along with music by Bairstow (who Dad met when he was a boy) and E.G.Monk.
where they worshiped when visiting us. Singers rehearse at 2 p.m. and the memorial Mass will be at 3 p.m. All welcome but please RSVP. The music was all chosen by Dad and reflects his long connection with York Minster - Jackson, Bairstow.
At Turvey one could sit quietly and just feel the love and warmth surround you. And I also went to Worth to see dear Father Charles who is so wise. I found I needed to talk! God bless spiritual advisers and counsellors everywhere! Has it occurred to you that God uses musicians to comfort people, by their music and their words and above all by their lives?