Chapel packed as hundreds say tearful farewell to Chad journalist and mum-of-two Katrina Taylor

There was barely any room left as the 150-seater Thoresby Chapel was packed, with dozens of mourners also stood around the sides to celebrate the life of Katrina, who died on July 1, aged 42 from a brain tumour.

After Katrina arrived in a horse-drawn hearse, her sons, Finlay, aged 13, and six-year-old Jacob, helped release two white doves, before her family and friends entered the chapel to the sound of Iris, by The Goo Goo Dolls.

Following opening words by celebrant Steve Blakeley, Katrina’s father Pete Soar gave a beautiful and moving – and often funny – eulogy.

He opened by saying: “First of all I need to give you all the clear instructions I had regarding this eulogy, it can’t be dull, it can’t be miserable or sad and it needs to be funny, reflecting Trina’s dark sense of humour.”

He went to talk about her childhood – laughingly describing her as a “challenging” child, who “was always right”, adding: “Trina was also academically very bright, being in the top sets at school and it was here that she really started to find her love for writing and storytelling.”

He talked about her family, including husband Andy, and her two sons, as well as Katrina’s career in sales and hospitality, and how it brought her in touch with celebrities, including Mansfield Town players.

He said: “There was one night when Trina was out on the town and she had lost her keys, so a couple of Stags players tried to help her get in. This obviously caused quite a commotion and resulted in a Stags-

supporting neighbour coming out of his house to see what was going off and said is that Jamie McGuire climbing over the gate?”

He went on to talk about Katrina’s joy at her job as a community news reporter at the Chad in 2019, adding: “I remember the excitement in her voice when she told me and her mum that she’d got her dream job. We couldn’t have been prouder.”

Mr Soar said: “I can’t not talk about the illness. I want to deal with it in the way Trina dealt with it. She hated it, she fought it and she even joked about it. From the get go, she wanted to fight it with everything she’d got.”

“Her final days were spent in John Eastwood Hospice which is the most amazing facility where all paid and volunteer staff are so supportive and welcoming and again I can’t praise them enough. They are now all members of the family.”

He concluded by reading Don’t Forget Me, a poem written by Katrina during her “brain cancer journey”, as she called her online blog, and which the Chad was proud to publish in November 2022.

After a moment of reflection and a photo montage, set to Green Day’s Time of Your Life, Mr Blakeley said his closing words and final farewell, before mourners departed to You Are My Sunshine, by Christina Perri.

Mr Soar said afterwards: “We wanted to give Trina a good send off, and hope we achieved that.”