I have cried so much in the last few days, and very few of those tears were for the reason you might expect.
If you'd asked on Saturday morning, I would have defined 'overwhelmed' as 'what it feels like when you're told you have a brain tumour'.
But it is as nothing to how I feel about the absolute outpouring of love, support, kindness and caring that has come from everybody in the last few days.
My email, my Facebook messages, my work email, my PM box at the music forum, my text messages, just everything, everywhere is full you lovely people being lovely. People I talk to most days of the working week, people I bump in to at the office about once a quarter, people I live ten minutes walk from but might only manage to see once a year, people who are on the other side of the planet, people I only know by online pseudonym, people I haven't seen since we left university or school, every single damn one of you.
I suppose it is one of those things that generally goes without saying - I would hope that you, as my friends, would know that if you needed something from me, you would ask, and I would be there. And suddenly I'm on the receiving end of an awful lot of people who feel the same way about me, and are saying it out loud. It is amazing, overwhelming, moving ... completely indescribable, really.
I did warn many people that I might be slow in replying, and I said that because I thought there might be a few people to get back to. There are in fact so many that you may well just have to make do with this generic thanks from me for now.
I know a number of you have been in touch with Lawrence to offer him your support as well, and I am deeply appreciative of that. It is understandable that the focus is on me right now, but there are many more of us involved in this - so do me a favour: look after one another just as much as you are all looking after me, my dear, dear friends.
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I have cried so much in the last few days, and very few of those tears were for the reason you might expect.
If you'd asked on Saturday morning, I would have defined 'overwhelmed' as 'what it feels like when you're told you have a brain tumour'.
But it is as nothing to how I feel about the absolute outpouring of love, support, kindness and caring that has come from everybody in the last few days.
My email, my Facebook messages, my work email, my PM box at the music forum, my text messages, just everything, everywhere is full you lovely people being lovely. People I talk to most days of the working week, people I bump in to at the office about once a quarter, people I live ten minutes walk from but might only manage to see once a year, people who are on the other side of the planet, people I only know by online pseudonym, people I haven't seen since we left university or school, every single damn one of you.
I suppose it is one of those things that generally goes without saying - I would hope that you, as my friends, would know that if you needed something from me, you would ask, and I would be there. And suddenly I'm on the receiving end of an awful lot of people who feel the same way about me, and are saying it out loud. It is amazing, overwhelming, moving ... completely indescribable, really.
I did warn many people that I might be slow in replying, and I said that because I thought there might be a few people to get back to. There are in fact so many that you may well just have to make do with this generic thanks from me for now.
I know a number of you have been in touch with Lawrence to offer him your support as well, and I am deeply appreciative of that. It is understandable that the focus is on me right now, but there are many more of us involved in this - so do me a favour: look after one another just as much as you are all looking after me, my dear, dear friends.