A coffee morning at mum’s flat followed a visit to dad’s grave and that of my maternal grandparents on the way into London.  As I walked the long path to where dad is laid to rest I glimpsed what looked like a record in stone sitting on one of the graves.  I went closer.  It was the memorial stone of Alma Cogan who was a pop singer in the 1950’s and 60’s and who died at the very young age of 34 in 1966.  I knew of a controversial biography of the singer and a play about her but I was only 10 years old when she died so, for me, she was a name and not a voice.   A quick read of Wikipedia gave me a synopsis of her brief life and her devoted fans were responsible for the stone disc that adorns her resting place.

(Alma Angela Cohen (19 May 1932 – 26 October 1966), known professionally as Alma Cogan, was an English singer of traditional pop music in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed the “Girl with the Giggle in Her Voice”, she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era.)

Mum and I looked at the photos when I arrived at her flat. We reminisced about dad, discussed television programmes we had watched, the state of the NHS,  the Supreme Court verdict on Brexit and we laughed, drank coffee and enjoyed ourselves.  Then it was back up the A1 in brilliant sunshine.