A birthday spent choosing a grave.

That’s how my nephew celebrated his birthday in 2025. Not going up town with his friends or a meal out with his girlfriend. We spent it walking through our local cemetery trying to decide where we would lay his father to rest.

We met the funeral director and grave yard operations manager and picked a grave for my brother. This was perhaps the most difficult thing so far. My grandparents were buried in this grave yard so we decided that he should be near to them. We made our way through the twisting track up to the very top of the site. Nearby stood the remains of the two old chapels and 50 yards below was the plot we decided on. It overlooked the town and wasn’t surrounded by other graves except one to the right that had remained unmarked.

As plots go, it had everything required. Nice view, peaceful surroundings and shielded by trees, it was just so completely unbelievable that in less than a week we would be putting my brother in it for the rest of eternity. I couldn’t quite process what was actually happening. There had been many days like this in the previous fortnight but this would take some beating.

The day before was spent with our local priest planning out James’s funeral and today was the last piece of that jigsaw. This is now where James would remain forever. Not with all of us that loved him beyond words but beneath the earth to slowly go back to the earth.