Music brings us many experiences of life and so I would like to give some of my brief thoughts on Elspeth through the words of some songs - and no, Alison and Nicola I'm not going to sing!
When she was 7 Elspeth was my Venus in Blue Jeans.
At 9 P J Proby was telling her that There's a Place for Us - Somewhere. Maybe that was the Caravan in the field with bullocks in Hawkshead! Our first real taste of The Lakes.
By 12 The Beatles had us on a Magical Mystery Tour giving an urge to travel with thoughts of Strawberry Fields (before pick your own) and Fool on the Hill. But there was no fool on a hill that day. Just a girl with ambition and a desire to succeed at whatever she did.
Elspeth died doing something she enjoyed, with the man she loved the most. I wouldn't say she was a daredevil but she was always prepared to go that little bit further than me. As my brother John reminded me she could also be a bit of a bossy boots when we were children and so it was no surprise for instance when she and I took Mum to Western Canada 30 odd years ago, that it was Elspeth who insisted that we walk the 450 feet across - and back - the narrow Capilano Suspension Bridge, 230 feet above the raging Capilano River near Vancouver. Mum of course stayed behind no doubt terrified that something would happen. Maybe that was a Bridge Over Troubled Water?
Elspeth could also be a chatterbox at times - certainly when we were children. I don't know if she was ever Talking in her Sleep or if she Talked to the Trees but I do remember one instance when we were staying at the village of Garlieston on the Solway Firth - our Grandmother's birthplace. Elspeth can only have been a couple of years old and she was chattering away about something to which one of the locals said "I dinna ken whit you're saying but I ken fine whit you're talking aboot! Or maybe it was the other way round!
So lots of Memories such as the time that John and I had to lift and move Elspeth's Mini when she got it stuck against the garage doorpost, Bagpuss on TV, and Of course we owe Bryan an apology because it was John and I who introduced Elspeth to that local institution, Bolton Wanderers, and of course we bought her first season ticket, so sorry Bryan.
Now though,as the song says - Que Sera Sera, What Will Be Will Be - So we have to move forward and Elspeth wouldn't want it any other way until eventually, as Monty Python said, we will once again be able to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
And if anyone was counting that was 12 songs.