I told you I was old!

 

Captain Sir Tom Moore’s funeral takes place this weekend, and due to restrictions it will be a very quiet event with only eight family members attending. The restrictions in visiting the sick and the dying, and the limits on funeral attendance, have been such a shocking aspect of the lockdowns. Captain Tom knew this was coming and said that it appears that there will be complete strangers remembering him sadly – but he thought of himself looking down on everyone and smiling. He also said there would be a need for more jam sandwiches than anticipated, but he wouldn’t be able to help.

Captain Tom served in India and Burma, and the former location gave him a particular fondness for Spike Milligan who had Irish and Indian connections. Tom used to love the Goon Show, which was then a rather outrageously silly show on the BBC. This was before Monty Python, The Young Ones and – well, many a jocular treat, most of which seem to feature Romesh Ranganathan or Hugh Dennis these days. Spike Milligan had left instructions for his gravestone to say “I told you I was ill”. Tom has requested a similar epitaph: “I told you I was old”. Great humour, even if I can think of some yet more applicable texts from the Gospels. More seriously, he asked for a simple white stone, similar to those marking the graves of his fallen comrades in the war.

When one thinks of an indomitable spirit, Captain Tom comes very much to mind. His military career was surely the most obviously heroic aspect of his life, but one day he decided that at the turn of a century of life he would try to raise a little money for those battling the virus in the NHS. It was a humble enterprise, though quite a challenge at 99, but it snowballed; wonderfully. Isn’t it surprising what a strong spirit, which keeps right on to the end, can achieve?

Dear Lord, thank you for the unexpected hope which Captain Tom represents, for his resistance to the onset of the virus and his care for those who give medical help to the stricken. Thank you that he instilled generosity and hope in so many people at a time when our situation felt dire. Thank you for his humour and his strength in doing what he could to help others at a time when no-one would have expected such a crowd-funding exercise. Help us to remember all that is good in his example and at all times in life be bearers of hope to others. In Jesus’ name.