I still can’t quite believe that you are gone. I know I wrote two pieces on you today for work, but those photos we ran of you make me feel as if you are still very much alive.
The industry, the country, is mourning. I don’t know if you realise how many lives you have touched, but your influence was phenomenal. So many are so sad, although, as I wrote this morning in the office, “sad” doesn’t quite cut it when we’re talking about losing a nation’s champion of love, equality and acceptance.
I was privileged to have spent several hours with you once. I don’t know if you remember doing that interview with me. I thought you were beautiful in your passion, words, warmth, grace and elegance. And now that you are no longer with us, it is my hope that the ideals you carried, your dreams of seeing a people united, a people blind to the differences of race and religion, will shine on.
You will be missed so much I cannot even begin to imagine.
May you rest in peace.
