In memory of Catherine

One of the saddest and most beautiful emails I have ever received.

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To Catherine’s dear friends

Very many thanks to everyone so much for the support, thoughts, prayers, phone calls, cards and emails.

We are having a very small family cremation for Catherine early next week – this is the wish of her parents. Some days after that, there will be a separate memorial service for Catherine which we would love you to join us for if you can; we will let you know details about this very soon.

Catherine’s coffin will be purple, so perhaps you might want to wear that colour one day next week? Also, some of her closest friends (the “Girls”) are helping chose some special, colourful fabrics to line the coffin; and her outfit. Given her Sinead O’Connor look, she will definately be wearing her favourite new red hat!

We will be asking those of you who wish to contribute something to her memorial service (even those too far away to be able to attend in person), for two or three special photos you have of Catherine, and if you wish there will be the opportunity to talk about what they represent to you about her. So you can perhaps start looking through for your favourites to send us? (preferably as digital images – but we can handle printed photos)

We are asking people not to send expensive flowers or anything along those lines. Instead, we suggest that people might want to buy some simple flowers for themselves in her memory. Jonquils would hold particular significance for this. They are currently in season in Melbourne and Catherine had them in her room at the hospital as well as in her apartment before she went to hospital. Jonquils are also a famous flower from the Zhangzhou region where we lived when we first moved to China.

We would also like to suggest that who wish might consider a donation to a charity that we know would have specially appealed to Catherine – probably vocational support at a girl's orphanage in Asia. More details on this soon.

Fond regards

Roger and Richard