Linda Nolan was laid to rest at the weekend and sister Anne has shared an unusual request she left her family before her death last month.
Linda sadly passed away on Wednesday, January 15 at the age of 65 following a long journey with secondary breast cancer. On Saturday, fans gathered in Blackpool to bid their last goodbyes to the star, surrounded by her loving siblings.
Celebrities including Shane Ritchie, Paul Chuckle and Jodie Prenger attended the service at St Paul's Church in Blackpool, where she married her husband, Brian Hudson. The service featured some of Linda's favourite music.
Speaking about the funeral on Monday, Anne told Good Morning Britain's Susanna Reid and Ed Balls that Linda would have been happy with how it went. She also revealed one unusual request she'd had, as reports the Mirror.
Anne said: "It was very emotional, very sad, but on the other hand it was kind of joyous as well. I mean, she picked her own coffin, the pink glittery coffin was her idea. That's the only thing... Oh the other thing she wanted, she wanted us to wear mantillas. You know, the scarf things that you wear? The lace things? So my daughter and Coleen actually ordered them online. When they came, we chatted about it, and we said, 'I think she might've been having a laugh there!'
"I don't really think she wanted us to wear mantilla, so we didn't wear them. But, that was the kind of humour she had."
Susanna then asked if Anne or her relatives had tried them on, and she replied: "I'm not sure what she was thinking about! She was probably just having us on, you know. But she did say she wanted us all in black and people to think about her and cry."
Hundreds of fans gathered to pay their respects to Linda on Saturday, as Susanna highlighted by saying: "In the days running up to the funeral, we were reporting on Good Morning Britain, that you as a family had said, if anybody wants to come, anybody, then come."
Anne replied: "That's what Linda wanted. We were doing it for her really. It was really strange because on the way to the church in the funeral cars, as we arrived there was loads, hundreds of people outside the church.
"My sister Maureen started crying. I mean, we were all very emotional, but she started crying because of all the people that were there. She said, 'I'm so glad because Linda would've been so disappointed if all these people hadn't turned up.'"
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Anne also shared that one woman in attendance, who lived closeby, offered a tray of tea and coffee to others who were there.
Anne added about Linda: "She's going to be missed, such a lot. She was a forceful character. She was a big, big character in our family and in lots of people's lives. I realised that now, she was amazing."
In her eulogy on Saturday, sister Denise Nolan-Anderson reminisced about Linda: "She really loved going to premieres and opening nights, having her beautiful hair and makeup done, and always was the life and soul of any big occasion.
"She would have loved all the fuss today."
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