I would like to talk about a friend of mine, Eve Christie, who I’ve known for many years and was a nearby neighbour for most of those years. I moved from that neighbourhood nearly two years ago and I learned very recently, almost by chance, that Eve had died.

Right way, I knew once I had the details of her funeral that I needed to attend in order to pay my respects. I’m at an age now when people die around me on a regular basis and many are people that I’ve known and respected over many years. If possible, I try to attend their funeral and this was one I particularly wanted to attend noting that given my own disability it’s not easy to turn up just by myself to, in this case, Southend crematorium. I was very grateful that a friend accompanied me to Eve’s funeral that took place a few days ago. It was a simple service, well attended but not particularly memorable. As it was at the crematorium, they only allowed 25 minutes for the service and everything had to be packed into that time.

I’m glad I attended. While the occasion was about Eve, I could catch up with old neighbours. I was aged 15 when I moved into that closely knit neighbourhood and, when I left, I had lived there longest. I’ve lived there on and off (mostly on) for most of that time, getting on for sixty years. It was not long after when Eve moved in to her house and, by all accounts, she was a good neighbour. She was a kind person with a winsome manner and good sense of humour. I particularly remember her kindness to my late mother. She was very much the life and soul of the community. Going back, I remember her helping to organise community events. She knew much of what was going on in the area. If I wanted to find out what was happening in my neighbourhood, the first persons that I could turn to would be Eve and she would tell me what I needed to know. She wasn’t a gossip but she took a interest in her community as a concerned neighbour, whether old or young, there being many children.

She was somebody much loved and respected by other neighbours and that was evident by the turnout at the funeral. In many ways, she was the glue that brought the neighbourhood together. There’s a lot about her life that I didn’t know. She had a family. She was married to Tony for 60 years. She had children and grandchildren and she was proud of them. She also had siblings and they were close. But I don’t know that much about her life other than that. I recall when living in that neighbourhood I would often bump into Eve. We would often exchange a few words that was usually quite convivial. She could be direct and spoke sense and there wasn’t any malice in what she said. Those were her great features.

I often find such times very sobering occasions because it reminds me on the brevity of life that we go from being a child to being old and to being dead in hardly any time at all. And I always think when I come to a funeral whether the next one could be my own. Of course, I think about the big questions, e.g. what legacy do we leave and about eternity. Eve has left behind a good memory. To some extent, her passing is almost an end of an era because the people that lived in that neighbourhood going back to when I moved in have all gone and so has many that came not long after. But as one generation went new generations came and there have been children who became adults and then more children who had their children, even to a third generation. It will continue to be and so it should. I remember Eve as the kind lady who was much loved in our community and am glad to pay this tribute to her memory.