It was time. Finally. The autopsy had taken place and had been thoroughly examined. We could now have the funeral. I hadn't been to many funerals before, only my Great Gran on my mum’s side and my Great Uncle Sean’s. My mum had always made sure to remind me that funerals weren't supposed to be sad occasions, but instead celebrations of a person’s life. And the way I saw it, there was a lot to celebrate in Grandad’s life. The only dampener was how sadly and horribly it had ended.

As we stepped out of the black cars, I scanned the scene before me. It was beautiful. The ceremony was to take place inside a quaint, pretty little church right by the sea. It was made of pale golden sandstone with large, stained glass windows with engraved wooden frames. Ivy trailed down the walls to the bright flowers around the base of the building. “Oh my god,” Belinda murmured, “It's gorgeous!”

“Are we sure this is exactly what he would have wante-”Lori began, unsure.

“Yes, it's perfect,”dad said.

“I agree, it's lovely isn't it.” Grannie Ally said, her voice a little shaky. We all nodded in agreement before making our way through the small, oak door to our seats. There weren't many of us there, seeing as the death had been so sudden and unexpected and most people hadn't been able to fly out to Cyprus for the ceremony. I thought that all of the most important people to my grandad were there though. That was all that mattered. I was sat on the first row, between my grannie and great aunt, both of whom were staring at the coffin, trying to smile but with their hands firmly clasped onto hankies in their handbags. On either side of them were my mum, dad and Niall. My dad held a similar strained smile that seemed to reveal more than it hid as my mum held onto his hand for support. I could tell she didn't feel much like celebrating, more like crying. My brother was already at that stage, leant into her other side and whimpering as my mum talked to him soothingly and patted his head. I couldn't bear to see them like this, I wished I could give them all a hug and everything would be okay again. But I knew that couldn’t work. On the other side of the aisle were Belinda, Conrad, Renuka, Luke and Lori. Belinda’s huge brown eyes were swimming with glossy tears as her lower lip trembled and she kept an incredibly tight grip to her pink glittery phone. Conrad sat hunched over in his leather jacket, staring at his lap and blinking hard. I tried to catch his attention to reassure him somehow but he looked away. I sighed. Next to him, Lori was tapping her foot and twitching slightly as she tried not to break out into tears. Her whole life had been controlled and planned perfectly to a T. Now it had all gone wrong and she couldn't control or change a thing. Not even her reaction. Renuka was leant into Luke’s shoulder, whispering something into his ear nervously. Her eyes were bloodshot. Luke sat bolt upright, staring vacantly through a window at the hills. Behind them sat some of my grandad’s old R.A.F friends, fidgeting a bit and looking very melancholy. Then finally, just behind us sat Ellie, her dad and another RAF colleague. Ellie just sat there, absentmindedly chewing at her nails. She had lost some of her vibrant energy that day. Now she was just slightly shell shocked most of the time. Farran looked exhausted emotionally. Though he was trying to hide that and was talking quietly to Grandad’s friend. I listened for a second or two. They were talking about grandad and his time in the RAF. I smiled to myself, it was nice to hear them talking about him, celebrating his amazing life. After a few more minutes of settling into the scene, the funeral director began. “We are here today to honour and celebrate the life of David Acton. I will be reading from a eulogy written by Isabel Acton, David’s daughter,” Belinda smiled sadly as he looked over to her, I was glad she had been able to write the eulogy as no one else had been able to face it, “It is a beautiful eulogy that Isabel tells me was very interesting and important to create as, in order to compile the content, she has researched a lot about David’s life. Especially as a young man in the RAF. She would like to thank all of David's friends from that part of his life for so kindly informing her of many stories from that time.” He took a deep breath and began.