My auntie's funeral →[More:]went as well as these things could go, I suppose. I made my train on time up to Manchester and met my sister in there. She'd travelled by train from her home town.

The day was sunny and warm, and the service was simple, a few readings, a beautiful eulogy honouring my aunt's life and just one piece of music. The family has been involved with brass bands for generations and my aunt's only son is one of the country's leading cornet players.

So the service closed with a recording my aunt loved - last time I saw her in May she played it for me several times. It's a recording my cousin made with the Black Dyke Mills Band (probably the best brass band in the world) where he plays lead cornet on Schubert's "Ave Maria". I think most people had been able to hold it together until that point, then the tears came.

It was a lovely ceremony. Every word of the eulogy was true, telling about her life, her personality and the things that were important to her.

She was a big Manchester City fan, a season ticket holder for 40 years, and a family friend managed to get a team shirt signed by all the players (including many from the glory years of the late 60s and early 70s) which was placed with her in the coffin. (No open casket, we don't do that in the UK.) Everyone said that City's victory over United last weekend was for her.

It was a lovely goodbye to a beautiful lady.

My sister didn't know most of the cousins because she hadn't seen them since they were children and hadn't met their children or partners. She said that for her the main 'attraction' of attending the funeral was to meet my cousin's husband, who's a TV personality and brother of someone who's a really well known comedian/actor.

We travelled back to my sister's home town by train so she could drive us both down here for the weekend, as we'd planned her visit before my aunt died. The journey across the Pennines was absolutely beautiful, the scenery is stunning. My sister said it was 'boring'. Sigh ...

Anyway, sister is here for the weekend, which is a whole other topic for another time.