ABERHONDDU Male Voice Choir serenaded mourners at the funeral in Brecon of local youth stalwart Rosemary Collier.
The moving tribute at St David’s Church, Llanfaes, was in honour of Rosemary’s husband Edgar, who was a former member and chairman of the choir.
After the funeral service, during which the choir sang Gwahoddiad by J Tudor Davies, Troytes Chant from Under Milk Wood and Take Me Home by Edwards and Hands, Rosemary was buried alongside her husband in the churchyard
Rosemary and Edgar moved to Brecon in 1968 with their young family to take up jobs with Brecon Youth Service.
Together the two youth workers set up both a junior and a senior youth club in the Old Boys Grammar School building in Cradoc Road, offering multiple activities to the young people of Brecon.
Rosemary also helped to organise the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme in Brecon, supporting weekend training sessions in all weathers in the Brecon Beacons. The pair also ran a grocery shop at 6 Bridge Street, Llanfaes, for many years.
After a diagnosis of vascular dementia in 2008, Rosemary moved away from Brecon to live with her daughter Glen Collier-McGirr before being cared for at Ashwood Care Home in Warminster.
She died aged 84 but it was always her hope that she would be buried with her husband in Brecon. This wish was fulfilled on Saturday. After the funeral service and burial, Mrs Collier-McGirr said: “It was a wonderful service and the choir did us really proud. It was the homecoming to Brecon she wanted and it was great to see so many people there who knew her, especially considering she hadn’t been back for 10 years.”
Mrs Collier-McGirr was supported at her mother’s funeral by her husband David, brother Gareth and sister-in-law Helen as well as their children and members of the wider Collier family.
Anyone wishing to make a donation to the charity Dementia UK in her memory can do so via Doug Prosser & Grandsons Funeral Directors.