Sorting

Now mum's funeral is over we face the long job of 'sorting'. Actually 'sorting' her things into piles to be kept, to go to the charity shop, to be thrown away etc, didn't really take that long. I went back to UK for a week and spent 2 or 3 days in her flat. Before that my brother had already removed her clothes (something my sister couldn't face doing), so actually clearing the 'stuff' wasn't too bad. What I am doing now is looking through the piles of papers and photos, remembering, scanning, deciding whether to keep them and what to do with them. She had copies of the family tree, odd bits of writing, my grandfather's ledger etc etc. The process is long, mostly pleasant and at times bitter-sweet. I found the photo below amongst her things. It is a photo of my father and his cousin Stan. I never met Stan but mum said he was one of my father's closest friends. He died when he fell off the platform of a number 140 bus as it went round the roundabout at Kenton, in North London.

Arthur and Stan