Travel Diary – USA – London – The Funeral

Rogers Funeral today. I woke up a bit after seven and got cleaned dressed ready for going out – and grabbed my laptop and went down to Starbucks for breakfast. Breakfast was nice but the Starbucks internet access was not working, I was not impressed. I tried ringing their support people but they could not offer much support. Then I walked from the British Museum to Kings Cross station. I figured that it was more reliable to work out the route by foot than the tube when doing it for the first time.

On getting to Kings Cross I found the new British Library. By new I mean since 1997. There was a lot of work being done at the station, which was not actually Kings Cross, but the one next door. To buy a ticket I tried the electronic machines. I found the station but finding the right fare was the challenge. I ended up going to the ticket window after a short wait in line I told the woman what I wanted.

She asked when I was returning, and what train if I wanted to take the next train, and then opened her cash draw, and looked up the price, Then she typed everything on her computer and gave me the two tickets – one for forward and one for return.

Finding the train was no problem – and I guess that the station looked very much like a Harry Potter movie. [Hey, it is the same station from Harry Potter – but I caught a train from platform 3, and not 9 ¾ ].Come to think of it much of the countryside on the way to Grantham was like that too – even maybe ten minutes out of London.

The train offered WiFi access for #4.99 for 60 minutes. Actually for seventy minutes. After a few hassles getting this connected I was slowly surfing. But only slowly. The speed was something close to 9600 bps I would guess and it certainly was not reliable. I would not call this a success.

If asked I would suggest that the access was WiFi onto a GPRS connection, and that would explain the speed. And I think they have a local proxy server with a WWW cache too.

I took the train from London King’s Cross up to Grantham, and was picked up by Ken Collins. Four of us went to lunch at a local pub having Lincolnshire sausages for lunch, and then prepared for the funeral. Ken went in the funeral cortège, where the rest of us went direct. Lincolnshire Sausages are nice, just normal sausages with spices and the like. Beautiful country pub.

Roger’s service was due to start at about 3:20PM. The casket arrived about this time, and those gathered followed the family in. Enya’s Shepard Moons was playing in the background when the people entered. Dee, the children sat in the front Row; and I think his sister was in that row too. I was in the second row with Ken Collins and who I was introduced to but cannot remember the name of. The rest of the congregation sat on the rows behind.

I was given a special place in the service, at the family’s request sitting in the second row. This from people I had never spoken to, and for the funeral of a man I had never met. I was honored, and at felt at least partially unworthy.

After an introduction, the congregation sang the hymn “The Day Thou Gravest Lord, Is Ended”. This was not one that I knew so it was lucky that it was in the order of service.

After this the funeral celebrant spoke about Roger’s Life, history and loves. I learned a lot about Roger during this talk. How he was a sports fan, and much he loved his family.

Then followed a poem Roger wrote at Uni called “Death of Creativity” read by his son. After this Ken Collins gave a tribute to the family about some of the things that he had done and the impact he had in the Ham Radio community. This included a quote from Andrew Robb from here in Australia from the online condolence book. TAPR also got a mention.

Following this was Roger’s favorite song “Heaven (Candlelight Mix)” by DJ Sammy as a reflection or prayer. This was rather sad and stirring, bringing much of the congregation to tears.

Following this song was the commitment were the curtain was pulled around the coffin ready for cremation. The funeral celebrant said some more things, and then we were asked to leave. The music was the Theme from Ally McBeal. Roger loved Ally McBeal, at least partially because it was set in Boston, USA, and Roger lived in Boston, UK.

At the end of the service everyone was invited back to the house, not the least to see the presentation of Roger’s award. It was stated that I came all the way from Australia to present the award. Not quite, and this left me a bit embarrassed.

Following the service everyone went outside to see the flowers. This is a concept that I have never seen in Australia and is a nice touch. I also got to meet Dee and the family.

[One thing to note, the crematorium I believe is on Marian Way, with Friar Way and Robin Hoods Way intersecting. Sherwood Ave and Sheriff way are close by. For those that do not know the geography, Nottingham is only 30 miles away.]

On getting to the house, we were invited into the back garden. Everyone was given a glass and some wine. They actually ran out, and had non-alcoholic which really suited me since I do not drink.

Dee and the two children were at one end of a huge circle. I then got to present the parchment and the plaque to Roger. I basically did what John Ackerman N8UR had done at the DCC, and read each out and presented each. And added some words of my own.

Dee noted that in the last month and a half, that the thing that brought so much joy to him was the award. And I believe that the family got a lot from seeing his reaction to the recognition. They were all so happy that Roger had got some recognition. Everyone seemed to be impressed with the plaque.

Following this presentation, there were two others. The Tier 2 Sysops gave US$500 and the Core Sysops gave US$600. These were presented to each of the children, and they both noted that the money was being donated to ‘The St Barnabas Hospice’, a voluntary organization which cares for terminally ill patients.

I can now see the impact that the TAPR award had on Roger and his family. They kept thanking me for what I had done. And I kept needing to say no, it is me who needs to thank you for letting me participate.

What Roger had never told his family about was the impact of his software on the real world. Roger was a real sports fan, and had spent a lot of time attending sports events, and also a lot of time participating in sport. He loved cycling, and used to cycle next to his daughter whilst she ran.

But he had never told them how his software had been used in the Sydney Olympics to support the cycling, and the marathons. Nor how it had been used in IronMan Hawaii where it was used to track for the cycling and the running. His son seemed really impressed when I let him know that I had the Sydney Olympics recorded in UI-View.

What I am going to do now is to get together all the bits and pieces I have and will send them a CD. This includes stuff on how UI-View was used in the Sydney Olympics and the like.

One of the hams gave me a lift to Grantham station, although I would have loved to stay much longer at the house. But the offer of the ride was too good to ignore, and I arrived back in London about 8PM.

One ham had driven four hours to get to the funeral from Surry. This was leaving at 4AM, and it is only 160 miles. This is too slow. The journey is just over 250 KM, and the average speed is just over 60 km/h. As a contrast, I clocked the train at about 160 km/h, or 100 mph. Rare that public transport beats private transport.