A widow has paid the ultimate tribute to cricket mad husband Patrick Keegan by spreading his ashes on his beloved New Forest cricket pitch via drone
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Patrick Keegan ashes scattered by a drone over ground he played on
A cricket player’s widow has had her beloved husband’s ashes dropped by a drone over the ground he played on for many years.
Patrick Keegan spent many an afternoon batting at Bashley Cricket Ground for New Forest side Hinton Admiral CC before his untimely death aged 61. He had recently retired from his job as a BT engineer when he suffered a brain aneurysm while driving to the shops and passed away.
His widow Maureen held onto his ashes for 10 years, not knowing what to do with them. Then she recently found out about the services of Aerial Ashes, the only company in the country with a licence to release someone’s ashes in the air using a drone.
Maureen decided it was what her husband would have wanted and arranged to have his remains scattered 120ft above the cricket square at Bashley. Family and friends gathered at the pavilion for a 20 minute service which culminated in the drone flying above them while Patrick’s favourite song, Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight, played.
Maureen, 79, said: “It was an event that could have been morbid but it was exhilarating. It was so lovely. “I have had his ashes with me at home ever since he died.
“I never thought I would have them with me for so long, I just didn’t know what to do with them. I didn’t want him buried in the ground because he was such a free spirit. When I heard about Aerial Ashes I thought it was brilliant and just what he would have wanted.
“There were seven of us there for the service. It was a sunny day with blue sky. It was a big drone that had his ashes. It went up overhead and circled around and then dispersed the ashes with Eric Clapton playing.” Patrick was originally from Charlton, south east London, and played cricket as a child.
He met wife Maureen at Waterloo station in 1982 and they married six years later. They moved to New Milton, Hants, and played for the now defunct Hinton Admiral at weekends at their midweek team The Old Vicarage.
Maureen said: “Pat loved cricket and played it from childhood. “He was a brilliant batsmen and won loads of cups. He played three times a week in the summer and he was still doing things like painting the side screens before he died.”
Matt Young, of Poole-based Aerial Ashes, said: “Maureen told us Patruck spent many happy days at this cricket ground at Bashley and the club were very helpful and more than happy for us to do it. We do quite a lot of personal send-offs like this.
“When the drone gets to about 40 metres you push a button on the remote to release the ashes from a drop box. We do it from that height as we look to make them dissipate and vanish in front of you. Matt’s service costs £795 and is said to give religious people the impression of their loved one ‘going up to heaven’.
He has performed more than 200 drone ceremonies and said there is a growing demand for his business. He said: “I’m really proud of my business. I love the closure it gives people and a lot of them really appreciate it.
“For religious people, it looks like they are going up to heaven. The funeral industry is very traditional but its future is in the celebration of life so I feel it’s very fitting.”
