Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-04-29 05:51:03 - Graham Ellis
"Come as a student, leave as a friend" we say on our coffee mugs. And so it was with Erin Brent, who came to us on a Tcl course 3 or 4 years back. Lisa and I stayed subsequently with Erin and Richard in Oxford, and they visited us in Melksham for a weekend. She returned to Australia early last year, where she passed away towards the end of the year. The news came as a shock to me - a chance comment from a delegate on my course. Glad I know but deeply, deeply saddened.
I last saw Erin at the Oxford University IT Staff conference about 6 months before she left the UK. In all the mad hubbub of the coffee break, Erin pressed a book that she had been telling us about into my hand - specially bought and brought in - and disappeared off cheerfully into the crowd to let me talk to a group I had around my exhibition table. My condolences go out to Richard; they understood each other, and I cannot imagine what he must have gone through and how he must feel.