IN MEMORIAM

Ladies and Gentlemen, since Billy’s sad demise on 15 May 2013, a number of his friends have sent me thoughts and memories of time they have spent with Billy.  Should you wish me to include a few words on your behalf, please send them directly to me on lindacwood@billyraymond.biz.

FROM GRAEME CROUCH, 17 MAY 2013

My wife Alison and I went down to the coast to see Billy on Wednesday morning and were shocked by the level of deterioration in him.  I called the ambulance and we had him admitted to the Gold Coast Hospital at around midday.  Danny McCoy, Alison and I sat with him in A&E until they transferred him upstairs to a ward at about 9 p.m.  We sat with him throughout, chatting and generally holding his hand and looking  out for him until he died at 11.20 p.m.  He was not alone at the time and he kept letting us know that he knew we were with him right to the end.

We had a long chat with the Doctor and nursing staff afterwards and commenced making arrangements for him.  I contacted Kelvin Cordell after all of that and jointly we commenced making arrangements yesterday morning - and tonight that feels like it was a week ago!

Alison and I went to Cypress Gardens nursing home on Thursday and had a long chat with the lovely Manager there and explained all that had happened and she is taking great care of John.  We actually took Billy for his last visit to John just two weeks ago.  Billy wasn’t fit enough to get back to see him since that day.  Sadly, John’s dementia is at the stage where he does not recognise anyone and is unable to speak and can only walk with the assistance of his walking frame and a carer, although he looks fantastic and has put on some weight and is eating like a horse, according to his care staff.

Billy will have a quiet private cremation.  However, on Thursday 23rd May at 11  am a celebration of his life will take place at the Gold Coast Arts Centre, and in a most generous and magnanimous gesture, the GCAC Board has offered technical staff to operate the room plus the costs of the downstairs performing space that you are mostly all well aware of for this function to which everyone who knew and loved him is invited.  It will be a celebration and great plans are underway, co-ordinated, with great skill, by Kelvin Cordell for an event that Billy would be proud of.  We are sourcing photos and film and all sorts of wondrous entertainments and stories for us to laugh and rejoice with.

Billy’s actual last performance took place at Redcliffe Cultural Centre at the end of March, when he performed as guest artist with Patti Allen and her troupe.  He had been totally exhausted by the end of his two-week “farewell” tour that I took him on in February/March but he had a couple of weeks to recover and