Hovis and the AR and grief.

[Drew Carey]

Quiff, thank you. I have been feeling this way too, hence why I have done my upmost to contact the other forums and people in Hovis's life. This has been a very rewarding experience for me as I have realised that the org was not his life. His life was everyone he knew. I have also had the pleasure of messages on Facebook from those he worked with and some of his other chums.

However, first and foremost come his family, even before those of us who knew him best on here. This is why anything that has been discussed outside the forum has been handled with dignity and honour and will be discussed with the family when the time is right.

Quiff - you have my respect for posting, as it is very hard to do that at a time like this. I know you well enough to know how much this would have made you think, be concerned and mull over before posting. But never ever ever be worried about posting how you feal or what you feal is right......I can 100% say with pride that this is NOT what Hovis would have wanted. He respected you for being as outspoken as him and I know he has enjoyed some of your contraversial threads in the past.

So can I please ask all the org, lets try and focus less on how we can represent Hovis from here on in, but rather focus on simply remembering him in our hearts. Remembering his family, his freinds. We don't need balloons etc to do that.......simply go and look at the photo thread.

I hope to see as many of the org at the funeral as possible, not in yellow (unless they are your bike colour or leathers etc), no balloons, no revving (unless asked), no arm bands......simply being there, as a showing of solidarity for his Mum.

Please all raise a coffee / glass of water or whatever you drink at this time of the day and simply say...... "Hovis's Mum - My thoughts are with you".

Originally Posted by flymo

Quiff, totally agree. Well posted.

I felt kind of weird personally, I never met Hovis face to face but his passing has certainly affected me.

Mike

My feelings are the same. I wont be attending the funeral, its not my place, i didnt know him personally. But he was part of my life through the .org and brought much humour to my days.
I have paid my respects through my donation to his half-marathon charity. Im sure he'd appreciate that more.

Thanks Drew.

Only one person has more Love for him than any of us and with it a bigger loss, his mum,

My thoughts are with her .

I hope things are more rational after the funeral and I for one will be returning my avatar to my normal one after I have said a last goodbye, maybe the forum will slowly get back to "normality" too.. but yea, there will be a hole there.. a big gaping yellow hole.

[tinpants]

Quiff, respect mate. Very eloquently put.

[gruntygiggles]

Quiff....you're just a dude. I didn't change my avatar, felt a bit guilty about it for a bit and then thought no......he stopped me changing it once before, so I'll leave it.

Drew.....well said too x

[Luckypants]

Quiff mate, an eloquent post and really does articulate what I have been feeling. I know others had that uneasiness to about OTT 'tributes'. Completely agree with the post, chapeau to you for posting.

Perhaps the ideas for "revving it up" or wearing yellow tshirts are something to bear in mind for the actual AR event next year. Everything should be toned down for the funeral, it is a time for paying our respects in an almost sedate manner, for the sakes of family members and other friends as well as the .org. It is a great thing for his mam to agree to a "biker's funeral", but there may also be others present who don't agree with such things or just don't like bikes. If that's the case then really that's their issue but we should still take that into consideration and treat the occasion as it is meant to be without drawing too much attention to the fact we're there. Although i reckon Hovis would have wanted as much fuss as possible made, we have to think about other people.

Just my tuppenceworth. I agree the Breadboy needs as good a sendoff as can be possibly managed and will be more than willing to participate in whatever is decided, just trying to see things from a different perspective.

Fab post btw Quiff #hug#

Excellent post Quiff.
well said that man.

Good post Quiff, wholeheartedly agree.

Saying that, I can quite understand in the hours after the event that peoples emotions would lead them to the suggestions that were made.

G

Quiff, much respect mate.

I can't agree more that it's a funeral not an org ride-out. I only met Hovis once at the Peaks ride-out and whilst he appeared to be a stand up guy, I didn't spend enough time with him to form a friendship, therefore please excuse the fact that I'm not going to attend the funeral. It's only because I don't think it's appropriate.

There are those on the forum who have suffered the loss of a good friend, there are others who want to go and pay respects to a man who they've known for a while, but have only really met on ride-outs, and then there are guys like me who have met him, but didn't really know him at all, and lots of other people in between.

I prefer to leave those who have suffered a loss alone to grieve in peace on the day of his funeral. A persons tragic death is not a bandwagon to be jumped on. I'm not suggesting anybody has because I don't know how well everybody else knew him, just explaining how I feel about it and explaining why other than an RIP and one memory from the peaks, I've stayed out of the threads, facebook groups, avatar & signature changing, etc. It's only because I feel it's not my place.