Jeremiah Duggan

10^th November 1980 - 27^th March 2003

LONDON. THE FUNERAL SERVICE:

On the 10^th April 2003 at the Liberal Synagogue in St.Johns Wood the Funeral Service was held. More than 300 family and friends gathered together and sat beside the coffin, draped with a white cloth, which was placed in front of us, near to the ark where the holy torahs are kept.

Rabbi Danny Rich who had known Jerry since he was a boy of seven years old took our service. He spoke about Jeremiah with tenderness and great affection. He encouraged us to remember how although his life had been short it had been a very full one. Rabbi Rich read out a very amusing letter which Jerry had written home to his parents from his Boarding school asking for more tuck and the little touches of Jerry's character came out and made everyone laugh through our tears.

Louisa's musician friends played Jerry's favourite piece: "Claire de Lune" on the harp. Tom Baxter played more of Jerry's favourite songs on the guitar. Ashley played and sang Jerry's favourite Hebrew songs on the guitar.

ORDER OF SERVICE

10^th April 2003

Reading:

Be cheerful, sir:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

From The Tempest, William Shakespeare

Music:

And the Youth Shall See Visions

Chorus: And the old shall dream dreams and the youth shall see visions,
And our hopes shall rise up to the sky
We must live for today, we must build for tomorrow
Give us time, Give us strength, give us life

Childhood was for fantasies for nursery rhymes and toys
The world was much too busy to understand small girls and boys
As I grew up I came to learn that life was not a game
That heroes were just people that we called another name (chorus)

Now I'm grown the years have passed I've come to understand
There're choices to be made, and my life's at my command
I cannot have a future "til I embrace my past
I promise to pursue the challenge time is going fast

Today's the day I take my stand, the future's mine to hold
Commitments that I make today are dreams from days of old
I have to make the way for generations come and go
I have to teach them what I've learned so they will come to know

Reading:

At the close of life the question is-
Not how much you have got,
But how much you have given.
Not how much you have won,
But how much you have done,
Not how much you have saved,
But how much you have sacrificed.
Not how much you were honoured,
But how much you have loved and served.

Further Readings:

This we know.
The earth does not belong to us:
We belong to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected
Like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth
Befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.
We did not weave the web of life;
We are merely a strand in it
Whatever we do the web,
We do to ourselves.

Final Reading:

Death is nothing at all. . .1 have only slipped away into the next room. . .I am I
and you are you. . .whatever we were to each other that we are still. Call me
by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone: wear no forced air of solemnity or
sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed
together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the
household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effect, without
the ghost of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same
as it ever was; there is absolutely unbroken continuity. What is death but a
negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of
sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, some- where very near just
around the corner. . . .. All is well.

Henry Scott Holland

Music:

Shalom Rav

Chorus: Shalom Rav al Yisrael amcha tasim Folam
Shalom Rav al yisrael amcha tasim L'olam
Ki ata hu melech adon, 1'chol hashalom
V'tov b'eynecha 1'varech et amcha Yisrael
B'chol yet uv'chol sh'ah bishlomecha

Burial at Highgate Cemetery. Eastern Cemetery. Swains Lane.