Thursday, April 29

Coincidences At The Death Of A Loved One

Clement FreudToday's story is about death, coincidences, last words and the like and is the bare bones of an article by Emma Freud, which will be published in a new magazine, Eulogy, when it launches in June 2010.

It's about the death of Clement Freud, the grandson of Sigmund, who was well known in the UK as a member of parliament, a knight, chef, broadcaster, author, soldier and raconteur.

Clement Freud died last year at the age of 84 while he was in the mid sentence of writing an article for The Racing Post. He had a massive heart attack and the last words he wrote were 'and in God's good time'.

His wife has stated that, in his 50+ years of writing, she had never known her husband make any reference previously to God.

At the time of his death his daughter, Emma Freud, was in Copenhagen and she received two calls from her mother trying to tell her about her father's passing. As her phone was switched off she phoned her mother back and heard the news.

Emma says, "I made a noise - a bit like a lion and a bit like a gasp. I instantly felt sorry that my mum had to listen to it."

Now comes the second strange incident. Emma's 13 year old daughter, who was two flights below her in a restaurant, 'heard' her gasp. In Emma's words:

"My daughter incomprehensibly heard it and instantly ran up to me as fast as she could. No one else heard a thing, but something communicated itself down to the basement and she responded in a heartbeat."

In time the funeral and cremation were arranged and Emma decided to sing a song, to her own piano accompaniment, at the ceremony. She chose the classic I'll Be Seeing You In All The Old Familiar Places.

Following the cremation, when all of the mourners had left, Emma and her partner decided to walk down to their local ice cream parlour. As they opened the door the speakers were playing Billie Holiday singing I'll Be Seeing You In All The Old Familiar Places!

As Emma put it, "Obviously my dad hadn't gone to heaven, he'd gone to Gelato Mio instead. And while he was there he wanted to hear the song sung properly."

It does seem that such coincidences and happenings can be in abundance following the death of loved ones.

Bookmark and Share

3 comments:

  1. I love this story! And, now, I'm left with the 'earworm' of that song---I'll be mentally humming it all day! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fantastic story. Is this magazine going to be available al over or just in the UK?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oops, never mind the question,. I just clicked the Eulogy link. Sounds like something I should subscribe to.

    ReplyDelete