Impact

I’m a fan of the film ‘Waking Ned’, not least because it was filmed here on the Isle of Man. If you aren’t familiar with the story, its well worth a watch, but briefly it is the tale of how a small Irish village ‘resurrected’ a chap who had died of shock in the wake of a huge lottery win.

The plot thickens throughout, but one of the key moments is when they are going to lay Ned to rest, and are nearly found out by a man from the Lotto. As he stands to give the eulogy, one of the village elders plays a blinder; He flips the name from ‘Ned’, to ‘Michael’, who is in fact alive and well and sat in the congregation. At that point, Michael becomes Ned, and the win is safe.

But its what is said in that eulogy that really is something else. He says what a wonderful thing is would be to visit your own funeral - to sit at the front and listen what was said. As Shakespeare said in ‘Julius Caesar’, “The evil that men do lives after them - the good is oft interred in their bones’. But he speaks fondly of Michael - who is of course, sat right in front of him.

Whilst I was touring Scotland last week, I had a message from a former colleague to tell me her mum, Hazel had died. It stopped my day. Hazel was one of those indomitable souls who if you were popping by for five minutes, you’d better have an hour to spare. Stoic, kind, and straight of speech, I think we all thought she was invincible.

I went to a celebration of her life yesterday. Not a funeral - the family had interred her earlier in the day, which I thought was an incredibly practical way of approaching the whole thing. Her daughter gave the eulogy, and it was everything we will freshly remember of Hazel on the vigil of her passing.

The point of this week’s blog is pretty simple; If this was your last day, and tomorrow wasn’t granted to you, how would your eulogy sound? Would you smile if you sat at the front as Michael O’Sullivan had the privilege to do? Would it be false platitudes, or warm and heartfelt words like the ones I heard yesterday?

We have a choice in the impact we make, which shapes the legacy and memories we leave. Yesterday reminded me how important that is.

Hazel Bradley - thank you for touching on my life. You were some lady!

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR

under the guise of his new identity, Ned. His good friend stand to give the Eulogy, and plays a blinder