Rachel always made presenting look easy. Including the time we were at an International Neuroscience conference as PhD students. Rachel did such an impressive job that she won the student prize - although she wasn’t there to receive the award when it was announced as she had nipped out to do a spot of shopping!
I’m standing in front of you, but I’m speaking on behalf of Rachel’s friends, particularly her ‘hens’ (both times!). A group of us brought together by Rachel over the last 25, 30, or even more than 40 years: there for each other through life’s ups and downs. As well as each of us spending time with Rachel individually, we also had regular hen weekend reunions and more recently renamed ourselves ‘the tea drinkers’ - as the ratio of champagne to tea consumption has (sometimes) shifted over the years!
There is so much to say, but it’s so hard to express what Rachel means to us.
This is some of what we would like to tell you about Rachel…
Rachel was the epitome of a ‘good friend’ - kind, supportive, non-judgemental, fun and someone who encouraged us all to shine. Rachel had an incredible ability to collect friends, and to bring groups of people together and make it work. She was the glue that bound us together but we are still holding on tight to each other. Rachel wanted the best for everyone around her and was talking about her desire to nurture friendships at our last big meet up. Rachel’s life wasn’t always easy, but she always shone. Her presence was tremendous, as is her loss.
I have had the privilege of knowing Rachel as a friend and as a professional colleague: as PhD students we bonded over hours of assay tube-labelling and repetitive pipetting in the lab, and our shared love of clothes beyond the scruffy academic scientist look - although Rachel even managed to look glamorous in a boiler suit in a sheep pen or in theatre scrubs! - then as PostDocs in collaborative labs. Then years later we worked together again at Napp after Rachel spotted a job description during an interviewing skills training course and promptly announced to HR that she knew the perfect person for what would become my rôle!
It is lovely to see so many work colleagues here today, as well as friends and family, as testament to the incredible human being that Rachel was.
Rachel was quietly brilliant. Insightful. Considered. Proactive. Strategic. Efficient, and effective. Beautiful, inside and out. Always being the best she could be. Recently described as the ‘whole package’, Rachel would go out of her way to support others - both at work and personally; genuinely and generously.
Rachel also liked to dress up, had an effortlessly elegant style and loved to party. She would be gutted to be missing this!
Her smile and laugh will stay with me always.
The world is a better place for having had Rachel in it, and her impact will continue, in all of us.
This poem was written by Theresa, one of ‘the hens’, who has so beautifully expressed our collective feelings:
Rachel.
Tell me there’s a heaven.
Tell me that you’re there.
I can’t bear to think of you
Not being anywhere.
Tell me that you’re happy.
Tell me that they’re kind.
And I will pass the message on
To those you’ve left behind.
Tell me there’s a space.
Tell me there’s a chair.
For all of us to join you.
For one day we’ll be there.
You brought us all together.
Your friendship bonds us still.
You’d want us to stand firm and strong,
I promise you we will.
Love transcends all distances.
Love transcends all pain.
You’re in our hearts and memories
Until we meet again.