Barkeep's Blog - Vollsanger: 9th January 2023 - Funeral of Victor Edward Payne

Monday 9 January 2023

9th January 2023 - Funeral of Victor Edward Payne

Thought for the day :"Apparently it was the international mime festival last weekend. They kept that quiet!"

So today was our opportunity to say goodbye to Vic...
A trip to Llanelli to the Crematorium for a short but sincere ceremony to see him on his way.

There were only six of us there - Lynne and Stave having come up yesterday to stay with us and Chris and Vickie popped in to support...

We had a natural willow coffin which was plain and white and Lynne had brought some red roses to place on the coffin - as Vic always bought red roses for her mum - a nice touch I thought.

We were a little early but everyone was there so we started and I said a few words about his three stages of his life - his life with Eileen and bringing up a daughter and his work in Rawlplugs, his life as a sole trader with Buckingham's Men's Wear and his life with Jean , and then his later times in retirement enjoying his cruises and holidays and his life in Barton.

"I was so pleased when he decided in January 2020 that he would like to move away from his isolation in Barton and move nearer to us in Llanelli - and how we managed to find him a new life in Burry Port in his own flat. Covid and the shut down followed almost immediately and I still shudder to think what would have happened had he stayed on his own - and we were prevented from visiting...

But instead I had some months where we could enjoy our walks around Burry Port Harbour and through the woods - some good times to share... His life then passed to assisted living and then the wonderful care he received in Annedd until his fall and admission to Glangwili Hospital.. His passing was quiet and peaceful. He did not know us by then - he was old, in pain and afraid. Passing was a blessing"

"He was never one for God and religion . In his later years he discovered Richard Hawkin and I think he would have approved of the thoughts that Susie now gives...."

Susie than gave this address....

You need a Physicist to speak at a funeral.
A physicist can talk about the conservation of energy, so we can understand that your energy has not died.
Physics will remind us of first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the Universe and none is destroyed. Friends and family need to know that all energy, every vibration, every BTU of heat, every wave of every particle that was Victor Edward Payne remains with us in this world.

We need Physics to tell us that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got … and more…

All the photons that ever bounced off Vic’s face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by his smile, by the touch of his hair, hundreds of trillions of particles have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by him.

And all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that were his eyes, that those photons created within him constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy goes on forever.

And Physics reminds of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. The warmth that flowed through him in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

We need not have faith – indeed should not have faith. Scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable, and consistent across space and time.

We can examine the evidence and satisfy ourselves that the science is sound and we can take comfort in the knowledge that your energy is still around.