Isn’t it nearly always like this David. You don’t want them to ‘go’ but you don’t want them to suffer either and there is relief when they have gone.
Our thoughts are with you - she and Laurent were good friends of yours and you loved Christine as Christine loved Fran. We’ll be looking out for you on the river bank!
Fondest wishes from Rachel and Stuart 
Thank you Rachel. 
I warned the Kine lady that, in view of the French insistence on early funerals and the fact that Friday is a bank holiday, I might have to ring and cancel our usual Wednesday session. No need, I found out on my way home, they have pushed the funeral forward to next Monday at 10am south of Perigueux so I will be able to make that session too. I am sure Christine would have forgiven this self interest but I am desperate to improve enough to avoid several days in hospital for an operation, not willing any more to entrust Jules to the lying kennels owner.
Hope everything goes well for Christine’s funeral tomorrow. Sad day I know, but she’s at peace now 
Just seen this, toutes mes condoléances 
Thank you both, yes an early start tomorrow to get there for 10 but I don’t mind that, she, and 2 other colleagues took half a day off from their work with us oldies to pay their respects at Fran’s funeral and the wake afterwards. The remaining 2 have apparently been denied the same privilege for Christine, I can’t gainsay interruptions for those similarly in need, but do find it sad nevertheless.
BTW, on Thursday I saw a bouquet of flowers on Christine’s street window sill and decided to put a small tribute myself. Before doing so I bumped into tall Annabelle, one of the 2 other English speakers and it was her that explained the restrictions above. When I told her of my intention she immediately gave me a tenner towards the cost and requested I put her name on the card as well. No idea what flowers they were but they were crimson with white edges in a small pot which I bought after advice from the flower lady who knew Christine. Only charged me €11 so I owe Annabelle a fiver next time I see her, 
One more thing, in passing this morning I saw a 3rd bouquet on the sill, A nice demonstration of feeling for someone who will have no grave.
Learned yesterday that a third member of our small, but longstanding Anglo-French dining group has finally succumbed to cancer. Thierry was the third in as many years and though his demise was expected, it’s still inevitably very saddening and sombre.
But we’ve got memories of everyone making an effort to contribute really good courses and having such a variety of great meals together over the past ten years. We’re hosting the next group dejeuner and I’d like it to be a celebration of absent friends.
R.I.P Christine. So sorry for your loss David. She is at peace now.
Thank you, she is, and i said goodbye yesterday at her coffin before it disappeared into the flames, standing there for a moment I re-blew the kiss which was the last thing she did to me after I left her the last time.
Only 2 people of her own English family were there, Steven her brother who, retired, was doing the last ‘shift’, and Jenny, her daughter along with her boyfriend. There were several friends like me but also she has benefitted, if that is the right word, from being the widow of a Frenchman whose extended family own the Hotel de France a few doors away and it was to there that we all repaired to for drinks, memories and little eats. Especially welcome for me, the latter, as I was knackered and starved having got up at 7 and missed most of breakfast to get there for 10.
They did her proud though, as one of their own. I had little time to recover before my scheduled kine torture later in the afternoon.