Eliza and Tom Whitfield

It felt wrong to write two eulogies. They would have hated that. They did everything together for 58 years and it seems only right to keep that going now.

Tom proposed to Eliza at a bus stop in the rain. She said yes before he'd finished the sentence. That was them: he was always mid-thought, she was always already there.

They travelled on a shoestring every summer until their knees made it impractical, and then they travelled anyway and complained about their knees together. They had strong opinions about tea, weak opinions about television, and absolute certainty about each other.

Tom went first, in February. Eliza followed in April. The family likes to think she simply decided she'd waited long enough.

They are survived by three children, seven grandchildren, and a Norfolk terrier named Biscuit who is coping as well as can be expected.