But you've said everything I would have wanted to say Mr Squeezer, in a far more eloquent way than I could have done.

I've never met Stephen other than through the posts on this blog (and the occasional tweet) but when I heard about Lesley's passing I was as shocked and saddened as if it had happened to a real (as opposed to virtual) close friend.

Which says a lot about the way Beany's personality has shone through on these pages.

Gentle shoulder charge.
Love you mate.

EDIT: Couldn't post this at work because of firewalls and stuff - but this is of course where the lines above come from. When I go, this is what I want played. Hope it works for you too Beany. God bless.

We'll all be thinking of you Beany, and looking forward to the day you get your posting legs back - you've been sorely missed these past couple of weeks.

to take my mind off today and to thank you all for the kind words and messages over the last week or so. We are trying to keep upbeat and positive, as Lesley would have insisted. She would not understand all the fuss. In fact she would probably be threatening to cut the plug of the computer for spending too much time on it!

She was a fighter to the end, keeping too much of her condition to herself. She never pushed herself forward and shunned publicity unless it was fo the good of the national charity she founded. She met many so-called celebrities on her travels and found most of them to be ignorant and shallow (ask me another time of her brief appearance on the Richard & Judy show about THAT woman..). She loved Roy Hudd after he presented her with a Radio4 award and he is still a vice-patron. No Archie Shuttleworth is not taking care of the funeral, before you ask.

Her preference in music was for goodlooking men (in their prime) with silky voices; Justin Hayward, Greg Lake, Josh Groban, Chris De Burgh, to name but three.When she got the chance to meet Rick Wakeman at a function she insisted on having her photograph taken with the grumpy old smoothie, despite the fact she had to perch on a chair.

Her biggest love was reserved for our daughters, Kyllie & Cara, and her direction & influence guided them through the years. My contribution was merely to tempt them to the dark side (prog & bad records) and take them to gigs.

http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2003/7/22/541681.html

I really didn't know about this. But, I genuinely mean this: my heart goes out to you and your family - as Van the Man's favorite poet put it:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

and yours today, Beany.

Take care of each other today. Thinking of you all.

Anyone with a couple of minutes to spare should read this story, which tells more about Lesley's incredible determination and achievements with Vision Aid.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/8417657.Tributes_paid_to_Lesley___s_...

and your family today.
Steven

Thinking about you again today on this difficult day. Peter & Donna's words put me in mind of something that I hope offers some light for tomorrow.

Half my friends are dead.
I will make you new ones, said earth
No, give me them back, as they were, instead,
with faults and all, I cried.

Tonight I can snatch their talk
from the faint surf's drone
through the canes, but I cannot walk

on the moonlit leaves of ocean
down that white road alone,
or float with the dreaming motion

of owls leaving earth's load.
O earth, the number of friends you keep
exceeds those left to be loved.

The sea-canes by the cliff flash green and silver;
they were the seraph lances of my faith,
but out of what is lost grows something stronger

that has the rational radiance of stone,
enduring moonlight, further than despair,
strong as the wind, that through dividing canes

brings those we love before us, as they were,
with faults and all, not nobler, just there.

you're one of the good guys.

James

but I too was thinking of you.

See you in December.

She sounds an amazing woman. Thinking of you

deepest sympathies to you and your girls

It's been a day of sadness, held back by a tide of happy memories. Standing room only, a round of applause after a moving speech by her friend & confidente, the headmaster of Liverpool's Royal School for the Blind. The priest called her a saint; Lesley would have slapped the bounder for saying such bollocks. She just saw the good in everyone.

Given the chance she would eventually have embraced the Massive, despite our talking in riddles, abbreviations and general twaddle. This is her song and it sent everyone away with a smile. She would ring everyone up with this song at the merest hint of snow anywhere in the British Isles.

You sound like an amazing family.

for you and your girls. God bless you.

Yourself and your family are in my thoughts at this time. Lesley seemed like a truly wonderful person, and, for what it's worth, it was truly a life well lived.

to you and your family.
Take care of yourself and your girls

Lesley sounds like an amazing woman, wife and mother.

Big big big hug xxx