After a better night sleep I drove to St Neots to register dad’s death but managed to give the registrar the wrong date of birth which caused a stir later. After taking Di to lunch we called Weald House where mum had sorted out dad’s clothes for disposal. Once home I met the Rev Peter Lewis whilst collecting Debbie from school who had drafted the funeral service for me to type up and get printed.
The Communist leadership of Czechoslovakia resigned today and the new leader is announced as Karel Urbanek whilst the previously-exiled leader Alexander Dubcek addressed a crowd of 250,000 in Prague and calls on his compatriots to unite to improve their country. In the US, Bush meets Thatcher and they express agreement over the need to keep NATO alive and backbencher Sir Anthony Meyer is to oppose her in a leadership election despite the calls by loyalists not to do so
I had a better night after I had taken a hot water bottle to bed with me. This morning, I was quite rested and chased Diana unsuccessfully around the bed before giving in gracefully and getting washed and dressed for breakfast. A meal of toast and then, this morning, I prepared the information and drove into St Neots to register the death of Dad. This involved a long wait as the registration service does not seem to have caught up with the population expansion of the St Neots District. I then managed to make a mistake by giving the registrar the wrong birthdate for dad! I gave the date of registration of his birth but not the date of birth itself!
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This rather depressed me, but I took Di to lunch and then we dropped in on Mum at Weald House afterwards. Mum had been having a sort out and had Dad’s clothes ready for Di to divide into three bags; 1. to throw away 2. to give to Weald House as general patient clothing and 3. Donated to the St Neots cancer charity shop for fundraising. Once back in Paxton, I heard from the registrar and undertaker both flapping over the error but then met the Rev Peter Lewis whilst collecting Debbie from school. He had drafted out some aspects of the funeral service to give me for typing up. I took a number of initial calls from relatives and then retyped the guest list in columns for ease of referring to them in alphabetical order. Late again to bed tonight after all this.
The stunning international news today is of the Communist leadership of Czechoslovakia resigning. Leader Jakes resigns and the new leader is announced as Karel Urbanek. In the meantime, Alexander Dubcek (the 68-year-old former leader previously exiled) addressed a crowd of 250,000 in Prague and called on his compatriots to unite to improve their country. In the US, Bush meets Thatcher and they express agreement over the need to keep NATO alive and strong but George Bush is already cutting back his arms budget as the eastern threat lessons!
Mrs Thatcher has to defend her flank now from dissident Tories who are putting up backbencher Sir Anthony Meyer to oppose her in a leadership election despite the calls by loyalists not to do so. The ambulance dispute lurches on with the 999-service breaking down in the north-west.