UK: funeral of little Indi Gregory celebrated by Bishop McKinney on Friday. The father, “we’re going to give her the best send-off we can”

“We’re going to give Indi the best send-off we can – and she deserves it. Our daughter was baptised so it will be a Christian send-off with a choir and organ music. It’s going to be a very sad but amazing day. She’ll be with her musical lamb in the coffin” - the toy that she loved so much, that plays her favourite lullabies. Dean Gregory, father of little Indi, the eight-month-old baby who died in the early hours of Monday, 13 November, from a rare mitochondrial disease, said this as he broke the news of her funeral. The service will take place at Nottingham Cathedral, the home diocese of the family, on Friday 1 December, and will be celebrated by Bishop Patrick McKinney. Indi’s father will make a tribute speech to his late daughter. A delegation from the Italian government, who offered to pay for the funeral, will be present in the Cathedral. The little girl's family had carried out a legal battle, at every degree of appeal in the United Kingdom, not to remove life support from her. But the judges eventually agreed with the doctors at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham that it was in the child’s best interest to withdraw artificial ventilation. The Italian Government had granted Italian citizenship to the baby in an attempt to have her transferred to the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital in Rome which was ready to receive and treat her, but that initiative also failed. Indi’s father said he was moved by the Italian Government’s offer to pay for his daughter’s funeral service. Recalling her final moments, he said that Indi was in excruciating pain after her life support was removed.
Silvia Guzzetti