Funeral gets green light!

I had a call last night from Rev. Holy from St Luke's. He was taken a little aback when I said it was my funeral I was trying to organize. Clearly he doesn't get many calls like this. I said I needed to know whether I come within his catchment area. "How on earth do I find out?" I asked. "You ask me" he said. Pen at the ready, I told him my address and I wrote down the limits. Nightingale Lane on one side through to Bolingbroke Grove on the other. I was nowhere near. I realized with a pang of real disappointment that if I went down this route, I'd be allocated to the church up the road with which I feel no link, no connection at all. I don't want any religious ceremony. I only want it if it's St Luke's.

Rev. Holy could hear me going off the idea. "All that means "he said "is that's what's legally enforceable. People who live in our catchment are entitled to a funeral here. The church is the established church so that's the law. But for those outside the catchment, it's down to the discretion of the minister."

He then went on to explain that, as with schools, if you've got a church that's particularly desirable and you have endless people competing to use it, you may have to put in some conditions. I held my breath, wondering where I stood. "If you want to have your funeral here" he went on, "we'd say fantastic!"

"Fantastic," Rev Holy says he'd say"fantastic" to having my funeral at St Luke's! I am so chuffed. I feel like I have won a prize, joined the in-crowd, secured a bit of my future, resolved a part of the big problem.

I tell my mum. "Did you ask him about me?" she asks. I admit I was completely selfish and didn't mention her even though she's likely to be ahead of me in the queue. "I can't think there'd be a problem" I reply in a rather superior in-the-know way.