Emotional farewell to Delia (From Daily Echo)

Emotional farewell to Southampton grandmother Delia Hughes

12:58pm Friday 28th September 2012 in News By Jenny Makin, Crime Reporter

GRIEVING family and friends have today said an emotional farewell to grandmother Delia Hughes.

The funeral took place at 12.30pm in Southampton - the city the 85-year-old had chosen to spend her later years so she could be close to her family.

Dozens of mourners gathered at the east chapel at Southampton crematorium as Delia's pale pink coffin adorned with little painted flowers, arrived.

There was then a short service, presided over by Father John Chandler, from St Edmunds Church, which included a moving eulogy from Delia's daughter Beryl.

Poems were also read before the service ended to the song Smile, by Nat King Cole.

Floral tributes to Delia told of "the kindest, most caring person we have ever known" and "a very special lady".

The grandmother was found dead on Saturday August 18 at her Ocean Village home. She had been killed by several blunt force injuries to her head.

Her death sparked a murder investigation spanning four weeks that resulted in a man being arrested and subsequently charged with her murder.