I received a lovely message from a friend in my motorcycle club today that really gave me one of those "feel good" moments.
Some history behind this story.
5 years ago, whilst at my Motorcycle Restoration & Preservation Clubs annual inspection day, I had a photographic moment of magic when I was walking past an old Norton and all the boxes seemed to be ticked for what might turn out to be a nice picture. This old bike was neatly parked between two small pine trees with a horse grazing peacefully behind it. I didn't know who's bike it was at the time but when the picture was published in our clubs monthly magazine, a very frail old fellow who owned the machine approached me to see if he could get a copy of the picture. I gave him a CD with the pic on it with instructions on how to take the disc to the local photo developers to get some prints done. The family had a large print of my pic done and it took pride & place on his mantlepiece. Well this old fellow passed away last week and I wasn't able to make it to his funeral held today but the message I received from a friend in the club was as follows:
John, you may be glad to know that at Colin's funeral today the photo which you took (of the bike and horse) was in the centre of the tribute table at the front of the chapel. The family all tell the same story: Col was so taken with that image, that he reassured them before he died that he was “putting on the back pack, and going over the fence to the next paddock now”. A beautiful thought from a man who was at peace at the end of his life.
