Extracted from Pamela Openshaw's introduction to readings at the funeral of her father, Jack Ford.
Friends, we are meeting today to honour the life of Jack and to bring consolation to those of his family and friends who are here. The ceremony will be a short and simple one, as Jack had no religious beliefs himself and he had requested a non-religious ceremony. I am therefore officiating today as a humanist.
A funeral ceremony is an opportunity to join in taking leave of someone we have loved, but it is more than that. It is the celebration of the life and personality that have been - in this case a full and long life and a greatly loved and respected personality.
The death of each of us is in the order of things. It follows life as surely as night follows day. We can take the tree of life as a symbol: The human race is the trunk and the branches of this tree, and individual men and women are the leaves, which appear one season, flourish for a summer, and then die. We too are like the leaves of this tree and one day we shall be torn off by a storm, or simply decay and fall, and mingle with the earth at its roots. But, while we live we are conscious of the tree's flowing sap and steadfast strength.
Deep down in our consciousness is the consciousness of a collective life, a life of which we are part, and to which we make a minute but unique contribution. When we die and fall, the tree remains, nourished to some small degree by our manifestation of life. Millions of leaves have preceded us and millions will follow us, but the tree itself grows and endures.
Pamela Openshaw, 24 Millward Grove, Fishponds, Bristol BS16 5AJ.