Dear Janet This may seem a strange time to write you a letter but there are good reasons for doing so. The first is that everyone who is present today will be speaking of their deep affection for the Janet they knew and treasured and mine will be but a small voice added to those combined expressions of love, which I am sure are bound to reach you. The second is that I wish to express feelings that you may have considered embarrassing beforehand for, like others we have known, diamonds seldom recognize themselves as such. I was going to continue by saying that we did not know one another well but this is, I believe, not true. What is certainly true is that we saw each other only seldom and did not know each other for more than a few years. But that is quite different, for it doesn’t take long to know someone in the presence of the positive and virtuous attributes of honesty – integrity, truthfulness and straightforwardness – which, as they say, you certainly had in spades! When Polonius offers advice to his son, Laertes, he says “those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel” and those thoughts could not be more fitting than on this occasion for I believe it most plainly depicts how your own friendships grew and, as it is so, describes you more clearly than any other fine words could possibly do. Dearest Janet, you have passed from a more immediate friendship to one that is even stronger in some respects for you will never be forgotten for the love you bestowed on those who knew you but to this, today especially, we can add our profound admiration for your courage and for your tenacity and we remember and bless you for the richness you brought to each of our lives. With love