I wasn't sure how to start off something like this. Afterall, it isn't really something you think about often and even then how do you begin to sum up a life such as Marc's in just a few moments. His life may have been short but he fit more into it than most other people can even dream of doing. If his life reads like a book, I feel as if I am simply the final chapter of an epic journey. I can only pray that in his mind the ending was a happy one.

So, I am going to listen to Marc's mother Tina's request and start by talking about how I came into Marc's life. It may seem common place now but when we got together the mere concept of the internet was forgien to most people on either side of the Atlantic let alone the idea of meeting someone over it and eventually marrying them.

On October 23, 1995 I was at university in Boston in the United States and I had just recently discovered internet chat rooms. I was done classes for the day and looking to kill some time so I went into a random chat room. When I joined, the people in the chat room were all doing a virtual 'time warp' from the Rocky Horror picture show. I had long been a fan of Rocky Horror so I stuck around and asked people if they were fans also. Marc was being the virtual 'Frankenfurter' and from there we started talking and quickly became friends. I flew over here to the Uk on June 11th, 1996 with no intention other than to meet him and see a bit of England.

To cut a long story short we were married on October 26, 1996 which was one year and three days after we first met online. To some that was too much of a whirl wind romance but for us it was simply a matter of not wanting to live another moment of our lives without each other. I am told that kind of love doesn't come around that often. I suppose I wouldn't know because I have been truly blessed to have only known that kind of love. The kind where you can just look at your partner and know that the first thought on their brain is how much they love you and the second is that they know you love them just the same.

But then anyone that ever met Marc wouldn't have expected him to do things half way. He couldn't fake interest in something. He used to always say to me that he was a 'what you see is what you get' type of person and everyone here that knew him knows he was speaking the truth. There are some people that can slip through life without having made any real impressions on the people they meet. Marc simply was not one of those people. If you were on his good side he would do anything in the world for you. If you were on his bad side. Well, lets just say you wouldn't have wanted to be.

We all know that he was quick with opinions and always had his reasons to back them up. It may have driven us crazy at times to deal with someone that was so strong and certain of his own mind but I dearly hope that all of us that loved him knew that he was just looking out for us. He didn't want people to make mistakes that he had made and feel any sort of pain that he had felt and so he would kick and scream as much as he had to in order to save them from any potential pain.

When I was writing this the phrase 'strength of conviction' kept running through my head. I suppose what drew me to Marc initally and then made him the love of my life was the passion he felt for his beliefs and any causes he supported. Behind his big personality laid a huge heart and a soul full of compassion for the world and the plight of the people in it.

Through out our marriage I listened to stories of his world travels and particuarly his work with the unions, his part in the struggle to end apartied in South Africa and perhaps most impressive to someone my age, his involvement in the production of both the original Band Aid single and later Live AID.

Just the other day we were watching a program on the making of the first Band Aid single. He was watching with great interest at they showed the famous footage of the dying on the plains of Ethiopia. I looked over at him and he had tears in his eyes. I asked him why and he told me the story of leaving his newly born daughter at the hospital, recieving the best medical attention anyone could wish for and turning on the news to see just how lucky his little girl was to have been born into this society and not that.

Those tears were only surpassed when the Band Aid documentry returned to that plain in Ethiopia to see that the once barren land had become a lush green plain. I just am so greatful that in what turned out to be the last week of his life he was able to see the proof that good deads can make a difference.

When you arrange funerals you are asked frequently where people should send flowers. As a direct result of that last insite into the man I had the privilage to call my husband for eight years, I decided early on that I would rather that instead of flowers, everyone that loved Marc went out and bought the new Band Aid 20 single that was released last week. It is up to you which version of the song you play, they are both on the single, I belive, but at Christmas play it and think of Marc. He would have liked the idea that perhaps the benefits of the money spent now in his name will still be refelected twenty years from now.

Legacy was something Marc strongly belived in. He felt that whatever happened to his actual body after his death it was of little consequence in relation to what happened to his memory. Twice this week I have been reminded from his own words just how important memories were to him.

The first was when I was sent an email copy of a post Marc made on an internet discussion list. The post was dated the 29th of Decemember 1993. In it Marc wrote of what he wanted to happen to him when he died.

He said:

My opinion is that when I'm gone, I'm gone.

You don't have to have physical remains, just a name on the family gravestone will do. So long as someone remembers me, then I wouldn't be dead.

I can safely say that as long as there is breath in my body he will be alive.

I was reminded even further of both the degree of love he felt for me and his views of keeping the spirit alive when I found a letter he snuck into my luggage when I had to go home in 2001 due to the death of my grandfather. As I read the words this week if felt as if he was talking about how I should feel about him and his death.

He wrote:

(Read Letter Out)

4. I think that perhaps Marc's strongest legacy is the people he leaves behind. Each one of you in this room meant something to him and added to his pleasure of being alive. We all know that Marc's life had been full of a lot of physical pain since his accident and one of the few things that is getting me through at the moment is knowing that for the first time since I have known him he isn't in pain. There is nothing that hurts him and at last he is resting.

However, for him the pain was worth it to get to be on earth with people such as yourselves. We all may have come to know Marc at different stages in his life but without a doubt he is leaving a Marc shaped hole in our lives. However, it is important for you all to know that you left your own imprints on his life.

Family -

Tina - Tina, he loved you. He may have been bullheaded, he may have been opinionated but he loved you, worried about you a great deal and genuinly enjoyed your company. He was happy to have you living so close to us because it meant he got to keep an eye for you. Thank you for making it possible for me to have had this man in my life.

Terry - You were always his little sister. He would often tell me stories of you as a little girl and he kept those memories very close to his heart.

Ellen, Lindy, Steven (Daghmen) - Just talking about you all made his face light up. He considered you all to really be his siblings more than cousins.

John - He was proud of you and the beautiful family you have created.

My Family - I am glad that my own family had such a good relationsip with Marc. Marriage and being at a distance from your family are difficult enough without adding in relationship problems between inlaws. I was lucky that Marc genuinly loved my family. I am sure him and my PA are sitting somewhere trading bad jokes as we speak. I am glad that they got to meet each other in the flesh so that they will recognize each other whereever they are now. Marc had such love and respect for my mother and father and considered my sister Bekky to be his own sister.

Rhiannon and Ellie - Girls, he loved you with every fibre of his being. Not a day went by when he didn't think of you, didn't look at your photos, or he didn't talk about you. I am glad that he got to see you as adults and believe it or not I can see him in both of you in different ways. No one likes to be told they are like their parents but both of you have traits that could only possibly have come from Marc. One day you will see them reflected in your own children and know what I am talking about.

In addition to supportive families both Marc and myself have been blessed to have created a cluster of outstanding friendships. There are too many to name everyone that Marc cared about but there are two people that will always recieve special positions in my own heart.

Sharon - It is hard to describe how much you meant to Marc. He considered you to be one of dearest friends and I am glad that when you moved you two kept in touch. I don't think life was the same for him without you living across the way and I certainly know he wouldn't have been the same person I knew had he not met you.

Rael - What do I say? This all feels a bit incomplete without you here.. Rael was the best man at our wedding and over the past week has proved he desrved the title over and over again. Next to myself, I would say Rael knew Marc the best. Rael was in those internet chat rooms when I met Marc and nearly a decade later I am pleased to say that he moved from being someone I considered to be Marc's best friend to someone I consider to be one of my most treasured friends. Rael, Marc was so happy to see that you have found some of the happiness in Gail that we had with each other. I can't tell you how much I wish you were here today but don't ever think that he wouldn't have known just how much you are hurting right now too. He loved you ,I love you and between us Marc's memory will always be strong.

My memorial to Marc will be to live my life as the person he helped me to become. When I met him I was a shy young woman without a great deal of self esteme. I think that the Sarah of then would be hard pressed to recognize the Sarah of now and nearly every bit of my transformation I owe to Marc. Everything I do for the rest of my life will have a good dusting of Marc mixed in. I couldn't have wished for a husband that loved me more. I am greatful to have known such love in my lifetime.