Paddington Blue wrote:
Hello everyone,
Thanks for the PMs.
As some of you are aware Benny and I were very good friends. I will miss him dearly. As we all will, and I'm sure we will mourn him in our own ways.
One thing I'd like to say is that I've noticed a lot of people saying, I hope he knew how much he was loved. I can tell you for certain he was, He adored this place, it was a relief, as it is to all of us, when we want to get away from our real lives. This place made him laugh, it made him feel accepted, and it made him feel part of a community.
that being said, I'd like to suggest that perhaps if people are going to donate something to somewhere on Ben's behalf, then you could perhaps donate something to Bluemoon for the upkeep of the forum. Benny shaped this forum, he was as you have just read on this thread the corner stone of every thing good about this forum, and this forum is something that he truly believed in, as a place for stray city fans from everywhere in the world to come on to meet like minded people and just escape from reality for a bit.
And instead of thinking about what could you have done, please think about what you have done, you ALL made his life a little bit better, and he made ALL of our lives better. Not another person i have met, let alone on here can say the same for themselves.
This has been helping me out a bit over the past few days...
Remember
REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Christina Rossetti.
I have to apologise to you, and to Bastard too, for not sending a PM. I do feel bad about that, but it was not because I didn't give a shit about how you were feeling, just because I had no idea what I could say that would offer any comfort at all.