Well, the corks have now been swept up and the hangovers past from Saturday night. Initially it was daunting to see what 500 people looked like in the hall at Springwood but very soon, food was being consumed, drink poured, and the night was well and truly underway. One of the things I keep hearing now is how quickly the night passed – which I take to be a good sign – eg my speech didn’t bore everybody and put them to sleep for one thing!
The band were outstanding – lots of crowd participation on the stage, notably my brother in law, Callum Crawford who I had asked if he wished to do a tune or two ……..some thought he may have been practising his delivery of Robbie Williams’ Rock DJ in the mirror beforehand, I won’t comment. He did however do a great job of getting even more folk up onto the dance floor (if that were possible).
Henry Beeby somehow managed to control that huge room for the 9 live auction lots – a very tricky undertaking but he is the consummate professional and excelled to produce the drama and excitement as the lots all exceeded what we could have hoped or imagined. Charlie Rutherford was hopping on and off the stage all night, it was like an aerobic exercise for him. He was a busy boy and had an eye on proceedings all night to fulfil his task as Master of Ceremonies. And Nigel Brown, with his big long vets’ glove on doing his wrap up speech by ‘volunteering’ to come and extract money from folks in classic veterinary style.
So, the night ended with the song I had requested from Queen, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ – a song close to my heart. I feel George was living his life just like the song says ‘don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time’, but sadly it was catastrophically stopped and now it is left to us to keep picking up the pieces and making the best out of this situation we find ourselves in.
As I drove home from Springwood Hall late afternoon on Sunday after picking up the last of the debris – the Eildons were highlighted dramatically – he had sent me another beautiful pink evening sky as the weekend came to a close with my reflections and thoughts as always going back to my handsome lovely son, George. We miss you and will never forget you.
We will always miss you.
