For Fay’s 30th birthday on 20th September 2002, Brian contacted some friends and family and asked them to provide some words to be read out at her party. Here are a selection of the lovely words that were written about Fay for the occasion.
From Isla
Happy 30th birthday. It doesn’t seem so long since your 18th (don’t think I made it to that either – though I did manage your 21st!), only 12 years ago. I’m afraid I am unable to tell many stories about the last 12 years but I have plenty of good memories about the previous 13 from when we met in Primary 1. Thirteen years of recorder playing and Music Workshop concerts – endless renditions of “Hoe Down” and “The Snowman” – great stuff. I remember French Tuition with your mum, orchestra trips to Ardentinny, drinking hundreds of cups of coffee in Princes Square and talking for hours and hours, the Big Day in Stirling, a few Deacon Blue concerts and of course eating pineapples – but that is my story!!
I won’t go on and on as I hope that others have more embarrassing stories to tell. You have had a great 30 years and I know you will have a lovely birthday and many more happy years to come. Lots of love, Isla xxxx
From James
Fay, in the best This Is Your Life tradition, there is no recorded message for you to try and recognise the voice from – not that you can tell the difference between me and my brother anyway – but a message read ably by my lovely assistant (that’s you Brian) … I know you will have a great night and will have been really pleased to see all of the warm and welcoming smiles which greeted you tonight, so I won’t say “Have a great night”, instead I’ll say that if I were there I too would be smiling, sharing in your warmth and exuberance, laughing and heckling Brian as he reads out the messages! See you next week, love you – James
From Heather
Since I can’t be with you tonight, Brian asked me to put a few words together for Fay’s 30th birthday. Well, how could I pass up such an opportunity? It’s like giving a best man’s speech… your one chance to drag those skeletons out the closet, re-tell all those embarrassing moment, and generally humiliate the person in question! So please, sit back, get comfy and enjoy a few insights and treasured memories from the wee sister…
We all know and love Fay. She’s smart, funny, cute, caring and considerate. But who is the real Fay? What else is there to know about her? They say that human intelligence is measured in eight different types of skills: musical; physical; intrapersonal; logical; linguistic; visual; naturalist and interpersonal. No one could argue that Fay is highly talented in all of these areas. However, I think they missed a category, one in which Fay excels, and is in fact more skilled than anyone else I know. The ability to fall asleep…anywhere. She really is the “Martini” sleeper: “anytime, anyplace, anyway”! I think the best example I’ve seen was when she fell asleep at the table in a restaurant in Banff earlier this year. The “face-in-the-soup” sight was definitely the most amusing I’ve seen yet, but I’m sure Brian must have a whole bunch of stories he could tell about Little Miss sleepy.
I want to let you in on some of my favourite memories from our childhood. Firstly, the family holidays we had. We drove our Mum and Dad mad in France by singing A-ha songs non-stop for two weeks (ok, give us a break – it was the 80’s!). We fished for hermit crabs in Arran to keep in a bucket as a holiday pet (nothing wrong with us!). We set off sailing in a dinghy on the Norfolk Broads, got caught in a strong wind and had to put the sail down and row back before we lost sight of England. Then there was the girls’ weekend in Blackpool where Fay unwittingly met and had her photo taken with a TV star – it could only happen to her. And there are hundreds more… But whatever we did, we always had fun. Fay was great company, and a perfect partner in crime!
We loved singing and making up songs when we were wee, much to the dismay of our parents. I think the all-time low point for our Mum and Dad was when we invented a character called “Baby Toffee”, who talked in a silly voice. We proceeded to record tape after tape of Baby Toffee performing our original songs, which we found hilarious, but sadly no-one else did. It really is a wonder our parents didn’t give us away to charity somewhere along the line!
We all know Fay is extremely talented at music, and always has been. I inadvertently put her musical skills to the test one Christmas, when a group of us from Primary School played in a recorder concert at the church. We had to play “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, but the music we had just repeated the chorus over and over without ever getting to the verse. As we were coming to the end of the tune, I decided that it must be getting a bit boring for the audience to have to listen to. So, as everyone else stopped playing, I broke out into a solo performance of the verse. The only problem was that it wasn’t written on our music, and it turned out I only knew the first two notes to play. Everyone else lowered their recorders and stared at me in horror as I suddenly realised this wasn’t such a good idea after all. I played the two notes I knew, and then stopped and looked across at Fay to see if she could get me out of this mess (well, isn’t that what big sisters are for?). With only a split second’s thought, she picked up her recorder and carried on the rest of the music for me. No rehearsal, no music to read from, and no one else playing along. She played it perfectly. I can’t tell you how proud of her I was… and how grateful I was that she saved my ass in such a professional and seamless manner.
Another thing about Fay is her amazing drive, ambition and determination. One summer holiday when she was only about 13, she decided to organise a charity jumble sale. But this wasn’t just a one day project. Oh no, this was serious! She enlisted the help of a group of friends and gave us all tasks, setting down our deadlines for the next few weeks. We all worked as a team, typing leaflets, making posters, going round doors collecting jumble, sorting the not-so-bad junk from the total rubbish, pricing the stuff and grouping it together for the different stalls. All this activity took place in our house, back garden and garage. We had a whale of a time getting it organised, and we faced a number of challenges along the way – like the day someone kindly donated a huge canoe for the sale! On the day of the sale, we had mounds of stuff to sell. Some of our friends set up various money-making games in the driveway, and we even had a fortune teller in the back garden. It really captured everyone’s imaginations. The whole thing was a huge success and Fay raised so much money for charity that the local newspaper wrote a story about it. After the success of year one, this became an annual event. Fay organised a jumble sale every summer, and they got bigger and better. She put in an unbelievable amount of work. She raised a lot of money for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association over the years, and they were so grateful for her efforts. Well Fay, we were all grateful too. We had a lot of fun and laughs doing the jumble sales, we made new friends and we all remember those summer holidays fondly.
Fay also devoted a lot of her time over the years to music teaching. She organised music groups at local schools and they put on concerts for the parents. Occasionally she caught me off guard with my defences down, and somehow talked me into playing the piano at her concerts – and ok, I admit I really enjoyed them. She gave individual lessons to kids, and she ran a music workshop with some friends, carrying on a tradition our Mum had started some years before. Music has always been a big part of her life, and she put in a lot of work to bring it into other people’s lives, too.
So there we are. It turns out that even after 30 years, I still have no dirt on my big sister. I assure you I did give it a lot of thought, but I’m afraid I could only think of good things about her and happy memories.
So to finish, I just want to say congratulations Fay on your 30th birthday. It’s not just about a celebration for reaching a milestone in your life, it’s also about recognising your life so far and everything you’ve done. You have achieved so much already, succeeding in everything you’ve aimed for, and you’ll continue to succeed at whatever you do. Happy Birthday to Fay; my sister, my role model, my companion… my friend.
From Chris
Evening everyone, I hope you are all having fun, and since I’m sure Brian has laid on a free bar for you all…I’ll try to be brief so that you can return to getting sozzled at the expense of, ehm, thingy and whats her face.
Anyway, Brian contacted me about the 7th or 8th of September to jot down a few syllables to represent me in my absence…so, judging by my usual speed of response to correspondence, I would just like to begin by wishing you all a Happy New Year… Wasn’t 2004 a fantastic year, let’s hope 2005 is even better!
I’m sure all of Fay’s absent friends have had more than enough to say about how wonderful and talented a person she is (and probably far more effusively and eloquently than I could hope to), so I would just like to come at this from a different angle and mention one of her less obvious talents. Since this is a gathering of Fay’s friends to celebrate her 30th I would just like to thank Fay for one of her most special attributes: Fay is great at keeping friends together and an incredible friend to have.
Now, this might sound like damning her with faint praise, but I honestly believe that without Fay’s efforts I may have drifted away from some people who are very very special to me and I am sure that there are others amongst you who would have found yourself in a similar situation without Fay’s thoughtfulness and caring. The amount of time, effort and thought that Fay puts into her friendships is quite incredible and her friends are spoken with and listened to, understood and their feelings and thoughts remembered and empathised with in a way that only a true friend can. Unlike many people who have wonderful friendships but just sort of assume that those friendships will endure despite them being too busy/forgetful or thoughtless to really make the effort to keep them that way, Fay always goes that extra mile, and never fails to be a true friend. I honestly cannot think of anything that I could say that is a greater compliment and for that I say thank you and Happy Birthday Fay.