Martin Cooper

[fanf]

I was upset by news of Martin's death last week. Martin was not a close friend - I didn't see him frequently enough, though we got on with each other reasonably well and he was on my usual invitation list.

I regret not encouraging him more to come out and have fun with us.

I expect many people reading this will like to know the following:

From: Debbie Finucane <d.finucane@damtp.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Martin's Bench

Last April when Martin and I were in the Botanical Gardens (a place Martin loved) Martin mentioned that he would like a seat dedicated to him there when he died.

Some of us are interested in trying to get this seat. While I was speaking to his family yesterday they liked the idea and are happy for us to go ahead. mk370@cam.ac.uk has the details of the costings (between 200 and 300) and Helen (hw233@foundation.cam.ac.uk) has agreed to coordinate it.

Therefore this email is to let you know of the bench and give you a chance to contribute if you would like to.

Please pass this on to any of Martin's friends you know may be interested. The names I've used are mainly the ones from his mobile whose email addresses I think I know.

Debbie

Comments

[claerwen.livejournal.com]

I'm the Helen whom Debbie mentions in her email. Anyone reading this who would like to make a contribution, do get in touch.

[emperor]

Oh. I sent you an email instead :)

[claerwen.livejournal.com]

hermes- and livejournal-based means of establishing contact all equally acceptable :-)

[(Anonymous)]

I've spent the best part of yet another evening in tears for Martin, quite a contrast to Friday, when it appeared that I didn't have any feelings at all.
I keep hearing little bits about what Martin was like towards the end, and I'm struck by the number of parallels between Martin's life and my own from a few years ago. That time was so painful that years later the memories are still overwhelming. If I imerse myself in computer stuff, I can drown out the thoughts for some of the time, but they come to the surface every so often. Martin's death has made me dredge up memories that really should have been left alone.
I missed an opportunity to see Martin in his last week because I was too busy fighting my own demons to notice that he was treading the same path. I probably wouldn't have noticed anyway - when we did talk, the topic tended to be the finer details of rfc1812. It seemed important at the time.