In Memory of Graham

Graham Lord died very suddenly two years ago. He ran the pet shop in Backfold and was also a taxi driver.
Last night, a small group of his friends got together for a little memorial to him in Backfold.
It was organised by Haydn Pugh, who is good at this sort of thing. Graham's parents were there; the rest of the family couldn't come because of a sudden illness, so Karen Smart said a few words instead. She used to run the Pine Cellar in Backfold. George was there, from Greenway's Books, and Nancy and Ann from Nepal Bazaar, who took over the pet shop as their store room when Graham gave it up to concentrate on taxi driving. The other reason he gave it up was that his dad, who sat in the shop for him, refused to do another winter there - although it was tiny, it was impossible to keep warm. Alen from Backfold Books was there, too - about 15 people in all. And Islay. Islay had to be there - she used to sit outside Graham's shop all day when I was working in the Children's Bookshop going "I'm cute, and you can buy me a biscuit just here." When I moved up to the main Children's Bookshop out of town full time, Graham said he'd sue me for loss of income!
There's a little patch of grass and bushes at the top of Backfold. Richard Booth put his wooden statue of 'man shooting himself in the foot' there (I think it's supposed to represent the Welsh Development Agency). Now a yellow rose bush has been planted there (yellow was Graham's favourite colour) with another bush with yellow flowers to twine through it. Haydn put a brass label on the bush as part of the ceremony, and Graham's mum brought a little container for a bunch of flowers to put by it. Graham's parents seemed quite surprised that he had been so well thought of that so many people turned up to remember him.
We were also remembering Coop, who planted the rose bush, and lived just round the corner. He died only a few days ago - his funeral is on Tuesday, at St Mary's Church, and around 400 people are coming for it. He was a well known jazz musician, one of the Temperance Seven.
There was a very good buffet, with George and Alen keeping their shops open for teas and coffees, some very nice sandwiches - and the cheese twists went down very well. Islay particularly liked the sausage rolls.
The lady from the crystal shop in the Craft Centre was telling me about a standing stone near Crickhowell that she wants to go and find - a bit of a quest, since it's supposed to be somewhere overgrown.
I got talking to Karen, as well, who runs a cat rescue centre that specialises in Persians. She also gets rung up by the RSPCA for re-homing of other rare breeds of cats and dogs. She told me that, when a cat is re-homed, the owners often keep the fur that they brush out, and when they have about two carrier bags full, they send them back to Karen, and she uses it to make felt, blended with wool, which she then makes into slippers for the new owners.
It was a very nice evening - Graham died so suddenly that the funeral was over before some of us realised it, so it was nice to be able to have an occasion to get together like that.