You Know It's Bad When The Phone Rings This Late

[Colin Payne]

[Melodysk]

Elton :

 

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

 

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

 

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong.

 

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood,

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

 

 

My thoughts are with you

[Melodysk]

Duplicate post , sorry

 

[ 06. July 2003, 02:39 PM: Message edited by: Melodysk ]

[Vagabond]

So sorry to hear of your loss Elton.

 

The loss not only of a relative, but a fishing mate.

 

As I approach threescore and ten, I think of all my former fishing mates who have passed on.

 

Remember the good times, its all you can do.

[Apache]

My condolences and thoughts go out to you and your family Elton.

[fisherking]

Elton,

 

I can't really express how I felt when I read your story.

 

Next time you are up in Liverpool I will meet you and toast Dereks life with a pint.

 

John

[Elton]

John,

 

My mate from Maghull is down this Thursday, so it's mine turn to visit Liverpool next - get that beer ready

 

Funeral is on Monday. What a feckin waste of a life. I don't know all the details, but witness statements say that he was in the middle of the carriageway.

 

It sounds like an act of stupidity, but I have clear images in my mind of it all, of a man trying to save the lives of others.

 

Basically, he was on the other side of the carriageway and spotted a Vectra on its roof, stuck in the dual carriageway. He may have even seen it happen.

 

He pulled over and crossed from his side of the carriageway to the other.

 

This is where imagination takes over.

 

I know that he was in contact with the emergency services by mobile phone. My sister says that they're still trying to establish if he was still in contact when he was struck - it was a poor signal area.

 

The Vectra had four occupants. I can imagine their shock and fear.

 

I can imagine Derek thinking that all he had to do was stop a couple of cars and he'd have a traffic jam.

 

Unfortuntely, it was a shitty evening and light was fading.

 

The rest is just history and nobody can do anything to change that.

 

The driver of the BMW that killed him was 70 years old. The poor man will have to live with that for his remaining years, despite the fact that it was probably an accident.

 

All indications are that it was just one of those cases that you hear about on the news - a brave man losing his life helping others. Strange thing is, it seems all so different when it's family.

 

By rights, I have no right to feel sad, but he was (still is, by law) my dad. We hadn't spoken for years, yet we had never fallen out.

 

In truth, my heart bleeds more for my little sister. She's Derek's biological daughter (we share the same mother). Without wanting to go into detail, her and her husband have been through more than most people ever know in their entire lives

 

Don't know why I'm posting this here, really, but I suppose that it's better than bottling things up.

 

It's odd (and a shame) how we often don't appreciate someone fully until they're gone. I went out for a meal today with some friends and one of them explained how he's just bought a Scalextrix for his kid - no prizes for guesing who bought *me* my first Scalextrix

 

We played on that thing until it overheated. Then, and only then, I became interested in my other presents

 

Elton

[fisherking]

 

Elton let me know next time your coming up and we will have that drink.

 

Maghull is actually where my local is.

 

John

[Elton]

In case anyone has followed this thread and didn't see my other post.....

 

Three of the occupants of that Vectra were at the funeral today. It must have taken guts to do that, the motivation being respect.

 

As with the other thread, I'm going to close this one now.

 

The past two weeks have been a void.

 

Elton