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Emerson's UK memorial service: the recap
Mar. 27th, 2023 10:16 pmEmerson Milford Dickson's UK memorial service did indeed take place as planned on the afternoon of Saturday 18th March 2023 at Forest School. It was, more or less, everything I wanted it to be; there’s very little within my control that I would change about how it went. I know more people wanted to attend than actually could, due in part to a train strike; other factors like road works didn’t help and the weather before the event wasn’t favourable, though it all dried up by mid-afternoon.
Happily, we were able to stream the event live. If you want to see what happened, I would recommend not watching the live stream but instead watching the high-quality recording instead. That said, it may be more efficient just to read the text of the tribute instead.
( The transcript of the intended tribute )
In practice, there were a few infelicities in the reading, but nothing too serious. We couldn’t actually get the Bruce Springsteen excerpt to play, in practice, because the school’s Windows network picked a very inconvenient time to force an upgrade on the machine we had linked up to the audio system.
That said, there was one unexpected event that more than made up for it. Forest School has had a cat wander around its grounds more frequently in recent years; one day, it visited the library, and this was a red letter day about which Emerson tweeted in delight. The very same cat came and visited the room where we were giving the tribute, while were giving it. (There is a photo of the cat curled up next to two 24-packs of Coke that I had brought in, and few things – if any – could have been a more suitable or appropriate blessing.)
Many thanks to all those who came in person, or attended virtually via the livestream, or just sent warm thoughts. Many thanks also to everyone at Forest School who kindly let us use their wonderful facilities and provided a lovely finger buffet, with drinks, after the event.
I regret not having taken more photos of Emerson in his later years, and especially not having recorded more video or audio of him, but this was largely by his choice. That said, I was very grateful to everyone who stayed behind a little after the ceremony for a group photo; behind the group you can see the Forest School cloister and its dining hall. ( In the photo were... ). There were other attendees who couldn’t stay around for the photo as well.
After the service, there was not only a photo and a buffet, but also a chance to visit the Forest School library and see how it reflected the work done by Emerson and his team. There was also a delightful tribute in the form of a set of puzzles for teams to solve, created by Caroline and Dan. These puzzles are available online for you to try, as are the answers. (The metapuzzle answer is not a dictionary word, but should be very clear from context, especially in light of a recurring theme of the tribute.)
Ever since then, I’ve been doing OK enough, though the grieving is a near-constant process. Days with work are easier for me because they have a clear structure; non-work days are very easily spent rooted to a seat or in bed. There are still plenty of things to do and take care of just by way of estate administration. In the longer term, I have no idea what I’m going to do, but that’s OK; I don’t need to answer that question right away, and I have the rest of my life to find an answer.
Happily, we were able to stream the event live. If you want to see what happened, I would recommend not watching the live stream but instead watching the high-quality recording instead. That said, it may be more efficient just to read the text of the tribute instead.
( The transcript of the intended tribute )
In practice, there were a few infelicities in the reading, but nothing too serious. We couldn’t actually get the Bruce Springsteen excerpt to play, in practice, because the school’s Windows network picked a very inconvenient time to force an upgrade on the machine we had linked up to the audio system.
That said, there was one unexpected event that more than made up for it. Forest School has had a cat wander around its grounds more frequently in recent years; one day, it visited the library, and this was a red letter day about which Emerson tweeted in delight. The very same cat came and visited the room where we were giving the tribute, while were giving it. (There is a photo of the cat curled up next to two 24-packs of Coke that I had brought in, and few things – if any – could have been a more suitable or appropriate blessing.)
Many thanks to all those who came in person, or attended virtually via the livestream, or just sent warm thoughts. Many thanks also to everyone at Forest School who kindly let us use their wonderful facilities and provided a lovely finger buffet, with drinks, after the event.
I regret not having taken more photos of Emerson in his later years, and especially not having recorded more video or audio of him, but this was largely by his choice. That said, I was very grateful to everyone who stayed behind a little after the ceremony for a group photo; behind the group you can see the Forest School cloister and its dining hall. ( In the photo were... ). There were other attendees who couldn’t stay around for the photo as well.
After the service, there was not only a photo and a buffet, but also a chance to visit the Forest School library and see how it reflected the work done by Emerson and his team. There was also a delightful tribute in the form of a set of puzzles for teams to solve, created by Caroline and Dan. These puzzles are available online for you to try, as are the answers. (The metapuzzle answer is not a dictionary word, but should be very clear from context, especially in light of a recurring theme of the tribute.)
Ever since then, I’ve been doing OK enough, though the grieving is a near-constant process. Days with work are easier for me because they have a clear structure; non-work days are very easily spent rooted to a seat or in bed. There are still plenty of things to do and take care of just by way of estate administration. In the longer term, I have no idea what I’m going to do, but that’s OK; I don’t need to answer that question right away, and I have the rest of my life to find an answer.
