On the side walls of the village hall there were two large pictures of Chloe and some remembrances, like her A-level certificates and childhood toys and drawings and some photos from her Facebook pages.

At the end of the hall there was a disco set up, with a big screen behind it. And a baby-grand in one corner.

Beside the door on the right were some trestle tables with white table cloths.

At 7.30 Dorothy came up to the front, and said, calmly and with great dignity:”Hello everyone, thank you for coming. We are here to mourn and to celebrate Chloe’s life, and remind ourselves that although we don’t have Chloe any more we have each other. Mourning and celebration can both be beautiful, so we’ll mourn a little and then celebrate. And when we celebrate I want it to be how Chloe would have liked to celebrate with her friends.”

She paused and then went on, as Will moved to the piano stool:

“I have been persuaded to start off the evening. After that we will have more music, from others. This song is called Absence by the French composer Hector Berlioz and it is in French.”

Oh my God. I know that song so well.

Two chords and she was in, and with such confidence. The way she handled the wonderful upwards sweep on the words la fleur de ma vie est fermée…

Then the song pauses as if the singer just can’t go on, but pulls herself back and recovers.

I played that song on my old Walkman when Hadley was small and I was far away and I dreaded something happening to her. The singer was Régine Crespin.

As that song ended, young people stepped up one by one and began to hum backing chords and then one girl came in with in my dreams you are alive and well/ precious child, precious child and they looked at Dorothy together as if to say “this is your song and we are sharing it with you.”

After Precious Child, they sang Angel by Sarah McLachlan and Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton.

I know the songs because Will had made a playlist which I picked up on the way out.

One of the boys sang the Eric Clapton song and accompanied himself on a guitar.

Then they sang Celine Dion’s song Fly, this time looking together at Chloe’s picture again. One did the first two verses in a whisper, then they all came in on the third verse where Dion switches into her big, big voice, singing Fly, fly do not fear/don’t waste a breath, don’t shed a tear/ your heart is pure, your soul is free/ be on your way, don’t wait for me.

Then the first girl went back to a whisper for the last verse and straight after that they did a short wordless arrangement of Amazing Grace.

The screen suddenly lit up behind the DJ and it was a video of a rock band I did not know singing a song called Is There Something I Can Do? and the sound of a rock band made everyone relax and the young people ran over to Dorothy and hugged her and she was crying now and she said: “You were so wonderful. Go on and enjoy yourselves. Rock the rafters, Chloe would have said.”

Later in the evening, after the food had been brought in and I was talking in a group with Dennis and Sue and Dorothy and Maureen,  the DJ played Rihanna’s Diamonds and all the dancers synchronized on it and some sang the main lines and some sang the answering line shine bright like a diamond, and they moved together and I think everyone who was there will think of Chloe when they hear that song now.