The Famous Final Scene

I can't believe it's 9 years since I lost my Mum.

In many ways it feels like only yesterday, and yet at the same time, it feels like forever since she's been gone. I still can't get a whiff of Max Factor makeup without feeling that catch in my chest, Still can't do so many things without imagining doing them with her... and I don't think there'll ever come a day when I can listen to Bob Seger's Famous Final Scene without just dissolving in tears.... It was my Mum's choice to have that played at her funeral. She loved Bob Seger, loved Mainstreet, and Still the Same, and all the other old classics of his, but it was always going to be the Famous Final Scene that was played that day. It wasn't that she was maudlin... it was just it was the perfect song and the little songbird knew that.

She was a right character, my ma. Tiny and funny and adorable. She was loved by everyone who knew her... and everyone - everyone - was her 'very best friend'. She saw the good in all people and all things. My family was in the Pub trade, and Moshie - for that's how she was known to everyone, was loved by young and old alike. We had a lot of pubs in those days, and wherever she went she'd be instantly surrounded, and hugged and cuddled and fussed over by customers and staff. She never bought a drink - she wasn't allowed to! You'd see her sitting with a gang of bikers - all tattos and hair and piercings, and grimy leathers and jeans... and she'd be laughing, and they'd be asking her to dance... or you'd walk into a bar and some huge punk with black lips and liberty spikes would run up and swing her round and drag her off to meet his mates... Scary people, gangsters, business men in suits, hippies, trendies, workmen and dossers... you name it - they knew my Mum, and loved her.

At the church service after her cremation, the Vicar likened her to Princess Diana - indeed, she shared her birthday with the Queen of Hearts, July 1st, and one of the last things she ever asked me to do for her was to place flowers on the Town Garden Gates following her tragic death in the tunnel in France. Moshie refused to go into hospital until she had seen all the news that day... She loved Diana, and I know Diana would have loved her too. She never came home from the hospital again.

The church was packed - unusually so for an elderly lady, and many grown men wept openly.
When they played the song - her song... everyone went to pieces. I asked for them to play the whole song and for everyone to remain seated to the end. I wanted them to hear it all - to make sure she had every moment of her famous final scene...
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Words and music by bob seger

Think in terms of bridges burned
Think of seasons that must end
See the rivers rise and fall
They will rise and fall again
Everything must have an end
Like an ocean to a shore
Like a river to a stream
Like a river to a stream
Its the famous final scene
And how you tried to make it work
Did you really think it could
How you tried to make it last
Did you really think it would
Like a guest who stayed too long
Now its finally time to leave
Yes, its finally time to leave
Take it calmly and serene
Its the famous final scene
Its been coming on so long
You were just the last to know
Its been a long time since youve smiled
Seems like oh so long ago
Now the stage has all been set
And the nights are growing cold
Soon the winter will be here
And theres no one warm to hold
Now the lines have all been read
And you knew them all by heart
Now you move toward the door
Here it comes the hardest part
Try the handle of the road
Feeling different feeling strange
This can never be arranged
As the light fades from the screen
From the famous final scene...

God Bless you Mosh.