Though MacNeil’s dulcet tones garnered success abroad, she never strayed too far from Cape Breton. “Cash bar and music, so party on down,” Lewis read, prompting laughter from the people who had begun filling the church’s pews and upper balcony hours before the funeral got underway. MacNeil’s letter to her children, which Lewis read during the service, went on to request a party at the firehall next door to the church immediately following her funeral. She showed us that humour and laughter is a wonderful coping mechanism in hard times.” “My mom loved to laugh and she had a wonderful sense of humour. We loved her deeply and we will miss her deeply,” she said during a half hour service that featured prayers and MacNeil’s music. “What a legacy our mother has left for us. Mary’s church in Big Pond that she was overwhelmed by the sympathies that have been extended to her family after her mother’s death. MacNeil’s daughter Laura Lewis told those gathered at St. On Monday, relatives, friends and fans packed a small Roman Catholic church overlooking Cape Breton’s Bras d’Or Lakes where - as per her wishes - MacNeil’s cremated remains sat in a white teapot alongside one of her many hats and a portrait of her. Two, if necessary,” the light-hearted letter began. “Upon my death, I would want to be cremated immediately, my ashes to be placed in my tea room teapot. Turns out that MacNeil, who ran a tea room in her Cape Breton hometown until her death, wanted to leave her two grown children with a simple set of burial instructions - and one last chuckle. Wade Langham was making funeral arrangements for his mother, Rita MacNeil, last week when a handwritten note unexpectedly tumbled out of the beloved singer-songwriter’s will.
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