A musician has stepped forward to offer his services after a grandson's appeal for someone to play a particular song at his grandmother's upcoming memorial service.
Agnes 'Lolly' Lowth passed away in late March, after contracting COVID-19 earlier that month.
Due to the lockdown restrictions, the Lowth family was unable to hold a funeral or memorial service.
Nearly six months later, the family is due to hold a service on September 17th - the same date as Agnes and her late husband's wedding anniversary.
However, the family had been struggling to find a musician to play a specific piece of music - The Lonesome Boatman by The Fureys.
Following today's appeal, Justin Mason - a flautist with the Army No 1 Band - says he will play the song on a concert flute, noting it will be a 'great pleasure' to perform the song at the ceremony.
'Everything happened so quickly'
Agnes' grandson Andrew - who works in the Newstalk and Communicorp newsroom - spoke to Andrea Gilligan on today's Lunchtime Live.
He explained: "On March 14th, which was the Saturday, my dad drove up to my grandmother like he would have done most weekends and they went out to my grandfather's grave in Shankill and they went for lunch and then he brought her home.
"Two weeks later on the 28th, my grandmother had passed away after having contracted COVID-19 and my dad was brought to hospital, very ill with COVID-19 as well.
"Neither had shown any symptoms or signs. They were both well. It just really all came very, very quickly."
Andrew said the family never anticipated something with such an impact "could happen so quickly".
He recalled: "I personally was at a stage where after my grandmother died, because I was so worried about my dad in hospital, it felt like she hadn't left us.
"Everything was happening so quickly. She was cremated three or four days later, but we weren't able to have a ceremony then because of the restrictions because it was so early in the pandemic."
Andrew's father - who was at high-risk from COVID after getting a kidney transplant in 2006 - never had to go into ICU, but was in hospital for a week with the virus. He has since fully recovered.
Memorial service
Six months on, the family is preparing for the September 21st memorial service for Agnes.
Andrew said: "This is something that we know that so many people have had to go through as well. They couldn't have that ceremony they wanted at the time.
"Because we couldn't all be there when she passed away and because we couldn't all be there when she passed away and because we couldn't commemorate her afterwards, we wanted to be able to do something really, really special.
"At her service we want to play a piece of music called The Lonesome Boatman by The Fureys."
Andrew said it "is a lovely piece of music with a guitar and a tin whistle".
He said: "My brother can play the guitar no problem he is going to do that but we are really struggling to find someone who can [...] play this piece of music on the tin whistle."
He said it would "mean so much" to the family to find somebody available to play the song.
The Lonesome Boatman
Following the appeal, Justin Mason - a sergeant & flautist in the Army No 1 Band - got in touch to offer his help, and will play the song on a concert flute.
He told Andrea: "The Lonesome Boatman would be something I've been kind of known for playing. I've played it many times at funerals, including my own mother's funeral.
"I'm off that day, so I'm available to do it.
"In these times, it's nice to give something back: it would be a great pleasure for me to do it."
