I’m heading south today for my uncle’s funeral.

Brian, or Bunny as we all knew him, sadly passed away two weeks ago. These last few years thanks to Covid and life I haven’t seen nearly as much of him as I would have liked. In fact the last time I saw him was my mother’s funeral at which he read his favourite poem – A Coat, by William Butler Yeats.

A Coat

I made my song a coat 

Covered with embroideries 

Out of old mythologies 

From heel to throat; 

But the fools caught it, 

Wore it in the world’s eyes 

As though they’d wrought it. 

Song, let them take it

For there’s more enterprise 

In walking naked.

William Butler Yeats

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12893/a-coat: Bunny

Bunny was someone who always made you feel seen, heard and valued. He was fascinated with life, interested in everything and was a talented artist. He persued art for the love of creation. He was a photographer, a painter and a sculptor, though there was little he couldn’t turn his hand to.

I have done many things in my life, but the
most important segments are the periods
from 1960 to 1980 and 2004 until the present when I was and am now making
sculpture and drawing. The gap in-between
I foolishly devoted entirely to business and
regard these as fallow years.

Here Bunny talks of himself and his art. I am so struck by what he says here, fallow years. I keep thinking about this phrase and Bunny. He was a wonderful person, complex and intelligent. We all loved him very much and we all miss him, my aunt most of all who he loved above everything.

I have many memories of Bunny, him in Orkney hidden behind the lens of his camera, him cooking in his kitchen, sitting on a veranda in Tuscany drinking wine with him, Bunny bustling around in his workshop or working on his Mac. When he worked he radiated a calm sense of purpose which was hypnotic. I loved that if I ran cross country to my aunt and Bunny’s house, upon arrival he would offer me coffee or wine, never a glass of water, even if the sun wasn’t past the yardarm yet.

I haven’t yet really processed that Bunny has moved on, gone ahead or left us. This won’t really happen until the funeral, but even then I don’t know when or if his passing will ever feel real. Its been three years since my mum died and I still feel like she could just be away on holiday.

https://flickr.com/photos/noust123/: Bunny