Funeral of Mr Des Meredith
This morning we have gathered in All Saints Church for the funeral of Mr Des Meredith. Des died peacefully last Sunday in St Francis Hospice here in Raheny with his wife and family at his side. Over the last couple of days there has been sorrow as they begin to come to terms with their loss. There has been remembering and thankfulness – some tears and some laughter.
They remember a family man, a man with a love and zest for life. He grew up near Carlow and went to National School in Carlow town before heading on to Kilkenny College and Mountjoy School. He may have been brought up on a farm but, as the family have remembered with some amusement, farming was not for Des and he came to Dublin, working for 40 years in General Accident Insurance Company, where he was highly respected, eventually becoming Motor Superintendant.
They remember a father to Mark and Carol, a loving husband to his wife Thyra of some 47 years. Des and Thyra had stood alongside Carol on the death of her own husband some 6 years ago and her own subsequent illness. While he had lived with diabetes for a number of years, his health had deteriorated from last November – this has been hard for Des, hard for the family to watch.
Des was one who took a great interest in life, in people. An accomplished in his day, playing hockey and cricket and in later years taking up golf., he retained a lively interest in sport all his day. In latter years he loved to go over to watch cricket at Lords with his son Mark.
We read as our first lesson from the very end of the Book Revelation. After all the visions experienced by the writer, he tells of his final vision of a new Jerusalem, a place of hope and healing in the presence of God:
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
Those of us outside the family circle have come to offer our love and support to his wife Thyra, their children Mark and Carol, his brother Leslie and sisters Doris and Iris.
We gather this morning to commend Des, as husband, as father, as brother, as friend, the one who stood by others, who listened, who understood, the one whose friendship and love we valued and enjoyed to his heavenly Father. As we do so we set our own lives in the context of eternity, our hopes and our fears, in the context of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying that he may watch over us and keep until the day of our own departure from this life.