Tuesday 7 February 2012

funeral

Today was held the funeral of one Alun "Archie" Roberts, originally from Grangetown in Cardiff.

The service was packed with family and cycling friends. It was a joy to hear old and true stories of him then, and later in his local pub in Llandaff North in Cardiff. It warmed the heart to have a vicar also from Grangetown with the real Cardiff voice too!

It had been organised by his best friend, also originally from Grangetown. I'd first met him when he went to Southampton University in 1963 and came out on a local cycling club clubrun! I'd just started doing clubruns on my bike, with my father on his (instead of on a tandem).
Archie I met in 1972 when I moved to Cardiff and joined the Byways Road Cycling Club.

Some friends come and go, some you only see occasionally. Archie was the latter, but we always talked as if there had never been any time since the previous time we talked.

It good to catch up with others too, as living twenty miles from most of them I don't see much of them atall. His best friend lives up in Yorkshire, the furthest travelled at the funeral, and the one I've seen most of, popping up in different places over Britain, usually with a bike!!

I managed the funeral well, despite being squashed into a corner. I found listening to the poem by Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle...." very hard indeed.

10 comments:

Lori Buff said...

I'm sorry for your loss.

Zhoen said...

Hugs and condolences.

Kerry O'Gorman said...

These affairs are always so bittersweet...Dylan Thomas does this journey justice.

Cro Magnon said...

I'm not good at funerals... too emotional.

I just knew we were distant cousins!

gz said...

Lori, he was an alcoholic, but a friend who was good to talk to when we occasionally met. It is another shrinking of that generation of cyclists from Cardiff.
Funerals remind you of your own losses...my Dad, my Man...

kjsutcliffe said...

((o)) xx

The bike shed said...

Virtually all my oldest and longest standing friends are cyclists or climbers. Our club has riders today that have been members for 60 years. I remember when I lived in Usk the Cardiff 'Hundred Milers' coming through regularly.

gz said...

Mark, the 'Milers are still going!

The bike shed said...

Ah good - I'm glad the 100 milers are still strong. There was another club (Ajax?) that is still around too I think.

I'm a member of Chippenham Wheelers now ( I live in Wilts about two thirds of the time) and many years ago was Touring Secretary of the Tandem Club. When I lived in Usk I used to be in Monmouth CC which I know is still going strong, albeit quite small.

I still ride when I can and am even off to Mallorca for the first time this spring.

gz said...

The Cardiff Ajax are doing well, and Cardiff JIF ( Just In Front!!) are a club now developing depth in membership, from having been a racing team. I'm in CC Cardiff which is mainly a track club, which was started by ex-members of the Byways RCC (which I was a member of in the early 70s) in the 80s.
Since living in the village I've been a "second claim" member of the Cwmcarn Paragon CC, one of the oldest in South Wales..beaten by a couple of years by the Port Talbot Wheelers.