.jpg)
Sorry I’m not there today – we knew it would be like this of course but all the same it’s hard not to be there, with all the other people that love you, to make sure you get the send off you deserve. We talked about how this day would be - what might be there when you reached the end. Hopefully champagne and oysters if nothing else!
What we didn’t talk about was how much duller life will be without you. How much I will miss you, how much we would all miss you. If people only live on in other people’s memories, you will be living it up for many years to come, as you have left us with so many rich and colorful ones.
I remember when you first turned up in London – straight from Amsterdam where u had teamed up with John. I can’t remember whether u still had the black eye from your tramline incident when u arrived or whether, like so many Big Belly stories, that has now passed into folklore. You took to Northfield House like a duck to water – the unpredictability of the place suited your personality so well. There was always someone’s door you could hammer on at 5 in the morning when you still wanted to put the world to rights and the rest of us longed for bed!
You tried your hand at pop stardom but being typically adventurous, it was part of a Welsh speaking rap band with John that you made your first video. North Wales and your friends there always had a special place in your heart. I’m hoping that u got back there one more time before u left us for the big Bodega in the sky.
Do u remember the fun we had when I visited you in Barcelona, your other all time favorite place? I’m not sure Barcelona was ready for you, but they sure knew once you and Haggis had arrived. He of course helping the country prepare for the Olympics whilst you spent your time developing your love of good Spanish food and wine. You were, as always, an excellent host with a full itinerary of exciting and colorful places to visit, perfect stages for a full night of Debbie entertainment. There were of course many such stages in many other places over the years, each person will have their own story to retell.
My defining memory of you is one from the birthday do in Chester about 12 years ago. After the party on the boat we all retired back to the hotel for a nightcap (or 6). All the usual suspects were there and of course you held court in one corner. At some point in the proceedings you stood up and sang a wonderful rendition of Jerusalem with a waste paper bin as your shield.
It was a typical Debbie moment unprompted, wonderfully irreverent – and totally baffling! The next morning you were the last downstairs (the last to bed no doubt) and everyone broke spontaneously into Debera by Pulp
You were OUR Debera – the one and only totally irreplaceable Debbie Bell.
You have left us with the memories but you have also left us with your pottery. I suspect everyone at the main event today will have something that you created -you were first and foremost an artist – a very good one at that.
Can it be really true that I’ll not hear you shout “Hey Mulville” ever again? I can hear you shouting it now as u arrive at a party or pub – demanding an account of what is happening, why and when! I hear you were yourself to the end!!! Fabulously stroppy!!! Margie is a saint (thank you) and did a wonderful job along with your family helping you through your last 2 months. You must have been an awful patient at times but I’m so glad your greatest fear did not materialize, of loosing yourself, becoming someone else. We all loved u just the way you were!
I had assumed wrongly that we would grow old disgracefully together but that’s not to be. The experience of loosing you reinforces the fact that none of us know what is just around the corner and we must all live our lives to the full.
I hope you can feel the love we are sending you wherever u are, the gratitude we feel for the love you shared with us. You gave us so much. Thanks for everything; it’s a privilege to have been able to call you my friend. You will always be with me in my heart.
I’ll be raising my glass to you Belly somewhere in the Philippines - I hope that Bodega upstairs has a dam good red so u can do the same
Salute!!
A poem chosen by Debbie
Late Fragment
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
What we didn’t talk about was how much duller life will be without you. How much I will miss you, how much we would all miss you. If people only live on in other people’s memories, you will be living it up for many years to come, as you have left us with so many rich and colorful ones.
I remember when you first turned up in London – straight from Amsterdam where u had teamed up with John. I can’t remember whether u still had the black eye from your tramline incident when u arrived or whether, like so many Big Belly stories, that has now passed into folklore. You took to Northfield House like a duck to water – the unpredictability of the place suited your personality so well. There was always someone’s door you could hammer on at 5 in the morning when you still wanted to put the world to rights and the rest of us longed for bed!
You tried your hand at pop stardom but being typically adventurous, it was part of a Welsh speaking rap band with John that you made your first video. North Wales and your friends there always had a special place in your heart. I’m hoping that u got back there one more time before u left us for the big Bodega in the sky.
Do u remember the fun we had when I visited you in Barcelona, your other all time favorite place? I’m not sure Barcelona was ready for you, but they sure knew once you and Haggis had arrived. He of course helping the country prepare for the Olympics whilst you spent your time developing your love of good Spanish food and wine. You were, as always, an excellent host with a full itinerary of exciting and colorful places to visit, perfect stages for a full night of Debbie entertainment. There were of course many such stages in many other places over the years, each person will have their own story to retell.
My defining memory of you is one from the birthday do in Chester about 12 years ago. After the party on the boat we all retired back to the hotel for a nightcap (or 6). All the usual suspects were there and of course you held court in one corner. At some point in the proceedings you stood up and sang a wonderful rendition of Jerusalem with a waste paper bin as your shield.
It was a typical Debbie moment unprompted, wonderfully irreverent – and totally baffling! The next morning you were the last downstairs (the last to bed no doubt) and everyone broke spontaneously into Debera by Pulp
You were OUR Debera – the one and only totally irreplaceable Debbie Bell.
You have left us with the memories but you have also left us with your pottery. I suspect everyone at the main event today will have something that you created -you were first and foremost an artist – a very good one at that.
Can it be really true that I’ll not hear you shout “Hey Mulville” ever again? I can hear you shouting it now as u arrive at a party or pub – demanding an account of what is happening, why and when! I hear you were yourself to the end!!! Fabulously stroppy!!! Margie is a saint (thank you) and did a wonderful job along with your family helping you through your last 2 months. You must have been an awful patient at times but I’m so glad your greatest fear did not materialize, of loosing yourself, becoming someone else. We all loved u just the way you were!
I had assumed wrongly that we would grow old disgracefully together but that’s not to be. The experience of loosing you reinforces the fact that none of us know what is just around the corner and we must all live our lives to the full.
I hope you can feel the love we are sending you wherever u are, the gratitude we feel for the love you shared with us. You gave us so much. Thanks for everything; it’s a privilege to have been able to call you my friend. You will always be with me in my heart.
I’ll be raising my glass to you Belly somewhere in the Philippines - I hope that Bodega upstairs has a dam good red so u can do the same
Salute!!
A poem chosen by Debbie
Late Fragment
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment