Funerals at Cusworth

On 23 December, Father David Seeds conducted two funerals on the same day; one for a local resident and another for a neighbour in the adjoining county. Graham Moore, aged 68, of Cusworth, was cremated at the Rose Hill Crematorium in Doncaster, followed by his family attending at the Cusworth Church for the burial of his ashes. Later that day, Father David had to travel to Chesterfield to conduct the funeral of a neighbour from Ashover in Derbyshire, the village where Father David lives.

On 17 January, following a request from a Greek Orthodox family for an English-speaking Orthodox priest to conduct their mother’s funeral at Rose Hill, and having met with the family, Father David conducted the funeral of Mrs. Lita Brelsford. She came to Britain after the Ionian earthquake (also known as the Great Kefalonia earthquake) in August 1953. Damage was very heavy in Zakynthos’ eponymous capital city. Only two buildings survived there; the rest of the island’s capital had to be rebuilt. Argostoli, the capital of Kefalonia, suffered substantial damage and all of Kefalonia’s buildings were flattened except for those in Fiskardo in the far north. As well as causing major destruction on the two islands, the economic impact was far greater, and damage was estimated to have totalled billions of Drachmas. Many people fled the island: but the majority emigrated from Greece entirely leaving both the islands and their economy in ruins. All her large family were British-born. Father David commented that it was a privilege to support her family in this way.