Skipton to Driffield and Jenny’s Funeral - 19th Nov ‘19

An absolutely gorgeous morning. A hard frost on the ground and the sun in the sky. We abluted and were on the road by 8.45. Sat Nav said 2 hours so we had 15 mins to spare for a 11 arrival and 11.30 start.

2.5 hours later we arrived- just in time. What a huge county Yorkshire is - 150 minutes to drive from pretty much it’s Western to Eastern border. Of course we made (sorry, I made) some bad decisions along the way - including going on the Northern York bypass rather than the southern one. Why is it, whenever you are running late every light is on red, every roundabout has a queue and every single carriage road has a lorry crawling up a hill. We did manage to grab a McDonalds drive through breakfast on the way though so it wasn’t all bad.

Jenny’s funeral was at the East Riding Crematorium- a beautiful place on the edge of Driffield. As if on order, the sun shone for the whole ceremony. Luke delivered a fabulous eulogy and the place was crammed full of Jenny’s family, friends and work colleagues. A very sad day but, as usual at these events, huge amounts of pride for my big Sis and her wonderful family as well as pleasure in seeing everyone together.

Thom, Rach, Bobby and Laura had come up leaving George home alone looking after kids and dog.

We went onto Wetwang to the Vic for a very pleasant “wake”. Lots of nice food, friendly chat and fond memories / stories of Jenny. My cousin Alison and her husband, Russ, kindly took Mum and Dad home at the end of the afternoon.

We headed off to the other side of Yorkshire. We did find time for a quick coffee with the kids at the services just off the M62 near Donny. Kim also amazingly found the time to give her youngest son a haircut in the service station car park in the feezing cold and using the light from a car park lamppost!

We went back to Skipton via Wetherby / Harrogate so it would have been rude not to stop at the Wetherby Whaler for a bit of tea. Wetherby looked very pretty with the Christmas lights on and, although we really weren’t hungry enough to do the fish and chips justice, it was a pleasant journey break.

We arrived back at Brunnehilda at about 8.15pm just as the live debate started between Jezzer and Boris - praise the Lord, we don’t have a tele in the van!!

Tea, reading, blogging and another early night. Once again heating systems , water bottles and duvets were essential to a pleasant evening!

RIP, my brave big sister.