Thank you all so much
Kate, Morgan and I have been so incredibly moved by all the wonderful messages. Like Elaine, I am not often lost for words but I find it hard to describe the emotions the responses to the “Farewell” posting have aroused. Thank you all so very much.
Morgan has written from Cambridge asking me to add to this page the following message:
“Thank you all so much for your contributions. I’ve been sat here this afternoon reading them, with tears streaming down my face. To me she was my mum, but to see what a profoundly positive impact she had on other people’s lives is incredible and I am very grateful to you all for sharing your thoughts and feelings about Elaine. You have no idea what a comfort it is to read them. This is an extremely tough time for me, so you’ll understand if I keep my thoughts brief. I was just so overwhelmed by your tributes that I felt compelled to write a few words of thanks. I will try and write in more detail about her and what she meant to me at some point soon. Thank you all so much.”
For those who can make it, the funeral service and celebration of Elaine’s life will be at Wainsgate Chapel, Old Town, Hebden Bridge on Friday, 12th October at 1pm followed by burial in the church graveyard and wake at Old Town Community Centre. All welcome. Family flowers only please. Donations to Winston’s Wish (for bereaved children) care of Valley Funeral Services, Hebden Bridge.
We have criticised the Health Service at times over the past three years, but that usually didn’t apply to the individual health workers who have been fantastic. For the past few weeks, we have had the most superb and extensive support. The district nurses, Macmillan nurse and GP have all been totally brilliant, often going way beyond what they had to do. Nurses would even phone up when they were off duty to ask after Elaine because they were so fond of her. Elaine always let them know her appreciation, and I would like record my very profound thanks too.
We have started a memorial page on the Hebden Bridge Web which Elaine co-founded.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Elaine you can stop paddling now and rest.
Chris and family - all the tessers feel we really knew Elaine, and as a result feel we know you too.
Elaine was so proud of you all.
This will be a very difficult time for you but take comfort in the knowledge that you did what you could for Elaine when she was here, and she knew that!
Elaine was an inspiration to us all.
maddyxx
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Just adding our thoughts and sympathy.Take care.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Gosh, I’m so sorry to hear that Elaine has passed away. She touched so many people, offered help and comfort to others on the TES forum where I knew her from, and she will be so greatly missed. Peace and comfort to all her family and friends. Rest in peace Elaine.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Like any other people posting here, I feel I came to “know” Elaine via TES. Her good sense, humour and compassion will be sorely missed. My sincere condolences to her dear family. Sleep well Elaine.
XX
October 4th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I am deeply saddened to learn of Elaine’s passing.
I never met Elaine but we sparked up a ‘cyber friendship’ that has been on-going for the past couple of years.
Elaine helped me enormously through some difficult times.
I will miss Elaine’s chats and her wisdom so much.
Thinking of you all at this difficult time.
Nadinex
October 6th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
She will be sadly missed, she leaves a huge void in all our little worlds one cannot think will be filled justly. My own reaction is one of stunned silence and tears, like one finds in an only church, but it is always good to share a few words of comfort so I have 3 passages that come to my mind at this time.
When a loved one dies, it is not the ‘END’ - There is no such thing as the end.
To die is a release from the old body into a new and vigorous one - How can we be sad about that?
There is no end to anything, only many beginnings to take up and work on. The proof of what I say is all around us. After all, even after winter snows, the leaf and flower always grows. Even after the end there is always a beginning - HOPE.
(Sophie Large).
But there is a particular kind of silence which falls after a life like Coleridge’s and perhaps it should be observed.
It is an expectant and companionable silence, I think, the silence before the questions begin, and the reckonings are made. It is like the silence in a concert hall when a symphony has just been played. The music has ended, but it hasn’t in any conceivable way finished.
This is the peculiar music of biography, haunting and uniquely LIFE-LIKE for a moment, but always incomplete and unsatisfactory and sending out many echoes into the future.
(Richard Holmes. COLERIDGE: Darker Reflections. 1998).
Far art thou wandered now in search of health
And milder breezes,–melancholy lot!
But thou art with us, with us in the past,
The present, with us in the times to come.
There is no grief, no sorrow, no despair,
No languor, no dejection, no dismay,
No absence scarcely can there be, for those
Who love as we do. Speed thee well!
(William Wordsworth. ‘The Prelude’).
December 1st, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Thanks Chris for the photos on the HB page. As someone who knew Elaine mainly from the Internet and only met her in the last few years of her life when she was ill, I have greatly enjoyed seeing her in her prime(and you too of course!) and with her family.