Sun, April 05, 2009
Everyone kept remarking yesterday that Jade Goody was just an ordinary girl.
Yet with second-by-second coverage on TV, thousands of people lining the streets of London and Essex and flowers thrown Princess Diana-style on to her vintage Rolls-Royce hearse, there was nothing run-of-the-mill about her funeral.
If the reality TV star’s send-off seemed at times positively unreal, if in the eyes of some it occasionally skirted close to the absurd, the emotion from her public was genuine.
'Grief almost too much to bear, pain difficult to hide. But when we look into the sky for the brightest star above, Bobby, me and Freddie will send you all our love.’
The boys did not attend but sent messages in a bottle from Australia, where they are on holiday with their father, Jeff Brazier.
They held their own ceremony, hours before the funeral, on the beach at a private resort near Sydney.
In the letters, which they put in a bottle and launched into the ocean, the boys wrote: ‘To Mummy, Please speak to God and ask him to make the clouds go away on holiday because we can’t see the stars.
‘We love you very much and speak about you every day, we know you are with us when we play on the beach, eat our dinner and even when we are colouring in pictures for you, we know we can talk to you and you’ll hear us.
'You are always in our thoughts and in our hearts, mum, we are proud of you and you’ll never be forgotten.’
It ended: ‘We miss you, love your little men, Bobby and Freddie.’
During an emotional tribute to the star, Jade’s close friend Kevin Adams revealed that she and Jack had always planned to get married even before she learned of her illness.
He said: ‘Long before Jade’s illness, she got a letter from Jack. In it he said in no uncertain terms that she was the woman he wanted to marry. It is being buried with her and that letter will now never leave her side.’
Two Marie Curie nurses – Isabelle Abrahams and Gaynor Radford – who cared for Jade and her family until she died aged 27 on Sunday, March 22, also stood in front of hundreds of guests to read passages from the Bible.
Both stopped to hug Jade’s mother Jackiey Budden, 51, as they stepped down, her bowed head leaning briefly on their shoulders.
The London Community Gospel Choir sang Amazing Grace as Jade’s white coffin was carried into the church shortly after midday.
Mr Tweed was among the six pallbearers – but he was not among those who later transferred the coffin to the cemetery for burial.
The service was relayed on two giant screens for the crowd of well-wishers outside the church.
Among Jade’s fans was mother-of-seven Kirsty Brooks, 34, of Westbury, Wiltshire, who travelled with her three sisters to watch the funeral.
She said: ‘She was a real woman who always put her kids first to the end.’
Among the celebrities who attended were Antony Costa, a former member of boy band Blue, the singer Jamelia, Big Brother presenter Davina McCall and chef Aldo Zilli.
Tearful fans lined the streets as the cortege moved through Bermondsey, the South-East London district where Jade grew up.
Funeral director Barry Albin, himself something of a reality TV star after appearing in the fly-on-the-wall documentary Don’t Drop The Coffin, held his arms high – one hand holding a top hat, the other brandishing a staff – to announce the start of the procession.
It was pure theatre and Jade, everyone said, would have loved it. This was, after all, the funeral she had carefully scripted for herself.
A sombre bell tolled in the background as the procession continued in drizzling rain on the journey to Jade’s home in Upshire, Essex.
Inside one of the cars was her grandfather John Caddock and his wife, looking grief-stricken, while other family and friends followed in a fleet of black limousines.
Jade’s mother Jackiey was shaking and crying when she climbed into the car at the head of the procession. Onlookers called out: ‘Be strong Jackiey – she’s looking down on you.’
The ten-vehicle cortege moved slowly through the crowded streets, with Mr Albin walking slowly ahead of the hearse, to cheers and shouts from well-wishers.
Floral tributes on the cortege reflected Jade’s life and sense of humour. One read ‘Minging’, while another said ‘East Angula’ – references to some of her most popular catchphrases and malapropisms.
There was also a tribute in the shape of a Marmite jar – Jade once likened herself to the spread, saying people either liked or hated her.
Other floral tributes included a camera and a newspaper, symbols of a life lived in the public eye.
A bouquet from actress Amanda Holden and her family read: ‘Beautiful and bold. We admired your courage right from the word go, love Amanda Holden, Chris and Lexi.’
When the procession arrived at The Blue Market – the hub of community life in Bermondsey and where Jade’s grandfather had a stall – it came to a halt amid huge crowds.
Mr Albin made his way through the crowds to the back of the hearse and opened it to reveal a white dove in a cage.
He released the bird, which soared high above the market place to cheers and clapping from the crowd.
The funeral director told the crowd: ‘I knew you’d be like this. I knew you’d come and say goodbye like this. So from everyone in Bermondsey, goodbye.’
There were shouts of ‘God bless you Jade’ from neighbours who gathered around the hearse, before it picked up speed and made its way across Tower Bridge and along the A12 for the 19-mile journey to Essex.
Jade was laid to rest in a small burial plot in the graveyard of her local church. Her husband and mother led a group of 26 mourners, close friends and family to the quiet, leafy spot just half a mile from her family home.
Mr Tweed, wearing the cardigan he wore on his wedding day, hid his emotions behind dark glasses and stood head bowed, holding his hands behind his back as six pallbearers carried Jade’s coffin from the hearse.
He chose bunches of long-stemmed roses and the Marmite wreath from the hearse to be taken into the cemetery to be laid by her grave.
Later, he left her teetotal wake at a golf club in North Weald early so he could have a drink with friends at his favourite pub in Chigwell.
He downed a couple of drinks before returning home to his mother’s house to beat his 7pm police curfew, following his prison sentence for assault.
Last night Jade’s publicist Max Clifford said she became a princess in Bermondsey and a queen in Essex. The day’s events, he added, were ‘very much a Jade Goody production’.
And Karol Sikora, medical director of CancerPartnersUK, spoke of a wonderful legacy.
She estimated that Jade’s efforts to publicise the need for cervical cancer screening will save up to 2,000 lives over the next five years.
The funeral has attracted immense media interest, with Sky News broadcasting live uninterrupted coverage, the type usually reserved only for state funerals, for the reality television star from Bermondsey.
Guests began arriving at 11.15am. Ex Blue singer Anthony Costa and pop star Jamelia were the first celebrities to arrive.
Big Brother host Davina McCall arrived soon after and Jade's Big Brother housemate Spencer Smith was also amongst the guests.
Bouquets of flowers adorned the grounds outside the church.
One tribute, from Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan, read: 'For brave, sweet Jade, who always tried to make life better for herself and her two beautiful boys. You did it darling. Rest in peace.'
THE MUSIC PLAYED AT THE SERVICE:
Processional Music
Amazing Grace sung by the London Community Gospel Choir
Hymn
The Old Rugged Cross
Music
Ooh Child by The Five Stairsteps
Jenny don't be Hasty by Paolo Nutini
Last Request Paolo Nutini
Recessional Music
By the London Community Gospel Choir
(Agencies)
