Just a take on how it affected us on the ground so to speak. A family were flying over from London to attend the removal of their mother from the local funeral home to our local church (where I work in setting up such services). We had to delay that service for several hours to await their arrival (not a problem in that we were able to track when they potentially would arrive and factor that in their plans but I ate dinner at 9.30pm tonight!!
)
Similarly, in another bereavement in the parish (but not coming to our church) they have had to delay matters. Sadly, (and yes, all deaths are sad but some are sadder than others) this involved a 12 year old girl who died of cancer and whose sister died at a similar age of cancer and so a whole lot of children from the school she attended until June and the ones in her new school since September have had to wait on for news until family members arrived. We Have all had difficulty to cope with this but the children more so.
We think of delays as to how they affect us (and I have to admit that when my flight from DUR to DXB last year was severely delayed to the extent I missed my connection, all I thought of was how it affected me. In fact it benefitted me as I was able to blag a connecting flight from LHR to ORK, my local airport instead of to DUB when I would have had to catch a train down home) However we rarely think of those caught up in a maelstrom of emotions since they are trying to get to significant occasions be they funerals, weddings, significant family events...
We were lucky in that we had the time, capacity and the goodwill of the main players to delay matters. Many would not be so lucky and may miss out on important family occasions which cannot be deferred.
