Chi mi a-rithist thu

Gone is the past, let us start a new

Let this hope of peace, always remain

Spirit of Scotia, be strong and true

Then your children will smile again.

And the lone piper piped Highland Cathedral as we bowed our heads one last time in a small chapel in Benmore, Johannesburg, to the memory of Jon Hrusa. The Highland Cathedral is one the most popular bagpipe melodies, it is played before all Scottish international rugby matches, a favourite at many weddings and is proposed to be the new Scottish national anthem. But what I liked about today’s lone piper playing the Highland Cathedral and not the traditional Flowers of the Forest was that this piece was piped when they lowered the Union Jack for the last time over Hong Kong. And now it was piped at the memorial of Jon Hrusa for the last time. They say that the sound of bagpipes could reach across to the great divide and that our departed loved ones can hear them. They say...

Lonely the exile, o'er distant seas,

The home of their birth, gone from their eyes.

Bring back their souls o'er the ocean breeze

To the land where their fathers lie.

And as I heard the words of Heather, trying to hold it together, as she paid tribute to Jon, what stood out in my mind was Jon among these mass of kids, surrounding him while he was snapping away and then the children went back to what they were doing before "Smiling, crying and spreading porridge on each other". Sometimes...

Sometimes, when I... and the pipes played on.
Goodbye Jon, chi mi a-rithist thu.