Derek passed away peacefully at home on Sunday 24th March 2013 from respiratory complications as a result of thyroid cancer which he had been fighting for the last four years.

He was at home with his family around him as he would have wanted. He leaves behind his wife Jenny and their family, the fifths - Katie, Claire, Tim, Morgan, Sophie and two grandsons Duncan and Orson. He will be sorely missed by all.

Celebrating Derek's life
This website is a place where Derek's friends and family can leave messages, photos and stories to share and remember him. We would love to hear from as many people that knew Derek as possible. Please feel free to add your thoughts about, and memories of Derek.

Derek was very enthusiastic about using technology to create, to write and to remember and it therefore seems fitting for us all to remember him in this way.

To read and add your own comments:
Click on 'comments' under Jenny's post. If you would like to leave a message, please do so in the box below. You will be asked to select a profile from the drop down list, name=your name, URL field=xxx. If you have a photo you can email timothydwest@gmail.com or clairewest20@yahoo.com and we will post it up here.

Thursday, 11 April 2013

Katie's words from the church service 3rd April

Kahil Gibran – The Prophet

Than Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death."
And he said: You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink form the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

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