No doubt many wwoofers remember my mother, happily digging and weeding in the vegetable garden into her 93rd year. She loved working in the sun, and sitting in the sun. Between 2005 and 2009, when all my time and energy went into being sole 24-hour carer for my husband, she alone kept the veg garden alive; it's only thanks to her efforts that I have somewhere moderately clear to grow food today. She was 85-89 during that time.
Over the last summer her health declined and she died in October of heart failure. She was 93 and a half - she was always proud of reaching the half-way point to the next milestone.
Sustainability shouldn't end there. The family wanted, as she would have wanted, the most green and natural burial possible. With the support of a Natural Burial Ground near Monmouth, we buried her shrouded in her beloved cellular blankets (pure wool) with no coffin, straight into the grave in a dedicated and very beautiful field.
She is lying in her pink blankets, by the grave.
And is being lowered into the ground by her son-in-law, grandsons, and eldest nephew.
And is settled gently into the comfort of her last resting place.
We'd all recommend this as a moving and very personal way to say goodbye.
Now back to work on the farm and garden and orchard . . . . . I may have laid hands on a pair of horses at last. They are so tiny that I could almost pick the smallest one up in my arms.
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