Rosemary Barker, Rebecca Fuller, Aimee McCardle, Lee Paige, Giles Smith and I, amongst so many others, Lucy’s Parents, brothers, sisters in fact and in spirit, Friends and Relations attended Lucy’s funeral today, Tuesday 15th October 2013. I write this for the record. All of us there in attendance this afternoon were there to reflect on her life, and did so in a Quaker way, with adults who knew her well speaking in Ministry about her life and times.   We heard of the time as a young child, when her brother was buying a rabbit, how Lucy managed to ‘borrow’ a guinea pig too. And of the time when, on the way to a Britney Spears’ concert, Lucy abandoned her friend in a motorway pile-up queue, to secure a McDonalds for them both. And we reflected upon our own lives (as is the Quaker way) and reminded ourselves of our own frailties in the face of vaulting ambition. Pleasingly, Lucy didn’t do ‘v.a’. Instead she became the friend, the angel, the bridesmaid, the godmother, the auntie and the wingman for all.

It was a privilege to be there, to listen to her Personal tutor from Leighton Park School, Quaker Elder and CofE minister, Juliet Straw. A host of friends of like age attended, as well as that of our wider community of all ages that comes together to celebrate the life, and mourn the loss of one of our own.

Lucy Bywater, 6th Form Claires Court, 2000-2014 – In memoriam , requiescat in pace.