Marshall's Funeral Home

Heavy snow brought massive disruption, the military were drafted in to help cut off communities and police advised people not to travel.And it was touch and go whether the funeral of Stella Marshall, who died aged 97, would go ahead on March 1.The cortege for Stella Marshall's funeral had snow to contend withBut the funeral home laid on a 4x4 to take her son Colin Marshall, 64, his wife Denise, 50, and his son Andrew, 38 - who had flown in from Canada - from Gainsborough to the crematorium in Scunthorpe.Read MoreThe coffin was placed in a Discovery with the seats down and staff from Cliff Bradley & Sons Funeral Directors travelled in another vehicle.The cortege negotiated lorries that had got stuck in the snow and what would have been a half-hour journey in normal conditions took an hour and a half.Mourners did get to Stella Marshall's funeralMr Marshall, of Greystones Road, said: "We thought the funeral might have had to be cancelled but thankfully the funeral director came to the rescue by bringing the cars to us."We walked to the junction with Ropery Road and they picked us up."It must have looked like the mafia going down the road."We can laugh about it now but at the time it was no laughing matter. We thought it was important to get to the funeral and pay our respects on that day, especially as Andrew had come over from Vancouver."We can't praise the funeral director highly enough for what they did."We came across a stranded lorry. The trailer was stuck in a ditch and the cab was blocking the road."One of the funeral directors spoke to the driver and the driver was able to move the cab to give us just enough room to get past."Read MoreSenior director Carlton Bradley said: "We had only fetched the Discovery from Duckworth at Market Rasen that morning."The idea was to have a vehicle that could get through difficult terrain such as farms and it proved its worth on the very first day."We went through snowdrifts as high as the bonnet and encountered at least two jack-knifed lorries."The journey took longer than usual but we got there... (LincolnshireLive)