Firstly, please accept Dave's family's sincere thank you to each
and every one of you for coming along today.
As Martin has so eloquently put it, today we are here to say a
fond farewell to Dave Whitley.
Dave has shuffled off this mortal coil, he has ceased to be, bereft
of life, he's kicked the bucket, hopped the twig, bit the dust,
snuffed it, he's pushing up the daisies. And gone to meet the
Great Project Manager in the sky.
And I suppose we are all thinking how sad it is that a man of
such talent, of such capability for kindness, a man who could
overcome his disabilities with such truly admirable singlemindedness,
should now so suddenly be spirited away.
Well, I feel I should say, Nonsense! Good riddance to him. And
the reason I feel I should say this is he would never forgive me if
I didn't; if I threw away this wonderful opportunity to shock you all
on his behalf. You see, the one thing I learned from Dave about
shock is not that it upsets people, but that you realize that the
social rules that constrict our lives so terrible are not very
important, and I think that Dave realised that a long time ago.
He once told me that when he died, he wanted his ashes to be
scattered from Copthall Tower in central Harrogate so he could
get in everyone's hair. Unfortunately, I couldn't arrange that for
you Dave!
Well, Dave can't do that for us any more. He's gone. He is an
ex Whitley! All we have of him now is our memories. But it will
be some time before they fade.
Maria
15th June 2009