Eulogy for Blanche Hunt

spoiler alert: this post makes reference to the March 2 episode on CBC

Hmm. New Amy, old Tracy, a cat fight at the funeral service and we haven't even got to the buffet yet. FYI, Ken Barlow (aka William Roache) said he actually hurt his shoulder while carrying the coffin (you can see him wince if you watch closely). Anyhoo, in case you missed it, here's Deirdre's eulogy which she delivered at the funeral. It was very touching.

"The only thing my mother didn’t organize about her funeral was this speech. In my day, she said, if something bad happened you stayed home, got drunk and bit on a shoe. She would have been made up to see everybody here like this, the community out in force. Someone even mentioned that our local cafe had closed today as a mark of respect.

She lived for her family, my mum. "Four generations of us lot - there’s not many families can say that," she used to say when we were together. Only three generations now. I know it seems daft but I’m 54 and I feel like an orphan.

We've had our ups and downs as a family, more than our fair share actually, and I honestly don’t know how I would have got through the worst times, how me and Ken and Tracy and Peter would have coped without that mean-spirited old witch in the corner telling us to stop blubbering, pull our socks up and our fingers out. Yeah she was good with words. And people have used a few to describe her to me over the last few days: Unique, fearless, honest, oh I think actually they were being polite there. I think brutal might have been nearer the mark.

Anyway she always used to say that people giving eulogies always prattled on too long and they'd be better off picking a few words to sum up the deceased, clear off and let the mourners get to the buffet. But how do you choose just a couple of words to describe this one, eh?

Me and Ken tried for ages to come up with them and we never really did hit on the right ones, but there are only two words that I'll think of when I remember her, two words that sum up her love, her support, her protection, her loyalty and her strength: My mother."