David Watkinson's funeral was today
Published: Fri, 02/23/18
I attended David Watkinson’s funeral this morning. Ivar and I drove up together from Beverley and managed to find St John’s Methodist church although we were rather on the last minute. The church was quite full and the minister, Reverend Hughs, conducted both the service and the burial with just the right balance of dignity and humor. Reverend Hughs started by saying that preparing for a funeral was rather like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, finding the various pieces and joining them together to make a coherent pictures of someone’s life. He added that David’s life had seemed like a particularly complex jigsaw.
Tribute was paid to David as a father and family man. The minister also described David’s particular interest in Martial Arts. He said that David had been highly regarded as a martial artist and his willingness to travel and teach had gained him students and friends all over the world. It was a pleasant surprise when Neil Lewis, having traveled all the way from Australia to pay his respects, stood up and took his place at the lectern. Neil brought the condolences of those who had known David in Australia and paid tribute to David as a teacher and a friend.
Then one of David’s colleagues from the Tesco supermarket, where David had worked as a security guard for over 12 years, paid his tribute on behalf of all those who had worked with David. Apparently David’s unfailing willingness to confront, and if necessary deal with, would be thieves and trouble makers at the supermarket had earned David the respect and affection of his work mates and he will be greatly missed.
As a lifelong Methodist myself I felt at home in St John’s Church but I must admit it did seem slightly strange having David’s life celebrated and remembered in such a place, beautiful though the church is. I think David would have been amused and I hope he would have been pleased at the number of people who came and the words that were spoken about him.
The burial itself took place at the local cemetery. We stood on a rather bleak hillside while the coffin was laid in the ground and the minister spoke the traditional words, ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes and so on.
We finished up at a local pub where there was a chance for me to catch up with some of David’s students. A couple of them I have known for years. This was also a chance to meet for the first time others who have trained with David. It was good to share our memories of David. Since Beverley and Bridlington are not far apart I hope we can maintain contact in the future.
There were some tears and a little sadness this morning. Much more though was a sense of celebrating a life lived with Dave’s total commitment to being authentic and doing it his way. I would like to think that if Dave could say something from beyond the grave it would be something like. ‘Don’t be sad for me, just realise that life can be shorter than we expect, so grasp your opportunities and make the most of them like I did.’
It was clear from this morning that David may be gone in the physical sense, but he won’t be forgotten for a long time to come. I have no doubt that there many people for whom David’s passing will leave gap no one else will ever quite fill.
regards
Graham