Mourners’ toast to coffin in pub

FRIENDS toasted Eddie Mason a fond farewell after his coffin, with flowers on top, was wheeled into his local pub.

The ex-labourer’s casket was propped in front of the bar as friends and relatives ordered his favourite vodka and coke.

Eddie, who died aged 59 of cancer, had asked funeral directors to take his body to the Clippens Inn in Linwood, west of Glasgow, before his funeral in Paisley.

Sister Sadie Petrie, 61, of Edinburgh, said: “Everyone packed into the pub. It was lovely, everything he would have wanted.”

Pub owner Jackie Gilmour added: “He was a true character. It was an honour he asked to be back in the pub one last time.”