Like many others, having not checked out the forum for a while I was deeply shocked and saddened when I read the news about Laureen and am still trying to get my head around it. I have waited until today before posting, in order to gather my thoughts and to try and do Laureen justice with my message of condolence.
I never met Laureen, but - like many others - I felt that I had got to know her as a friend through this forum. This started when she sent me a PM out of the blue on the old Marti forum in 2002/3 to say that she had noticed my comments about Still Standing and how I wished I had a recording of the song. She said that she had a recording of a live radio performance by Marti, and that she would put a copy in the post for me. She included some other recordings of Marti in the same jiffy bag - basically, as much as she could fit into the bag! I felt that I should send her something in return, but she said that there was no need, that she was more than happy just to share her Marti/Wets collection with other fans. Anyway, I sent her an audio cable for copying tape recordings to her PC - since she had mentioned that this was something she wished she could do. And as it happens, I thought of Laureen last week when I was in PC World and saw that they now stock USB tape decks for this purpose.
Over the next few years we sent the occasional e-mail to each other to compare notes on live performances and CDs by Marti and Wet Wet Wet and our thoughts on any forthcoming tour or album release, and she would always ask me how my family was, and would tell me about her own family. She was clearly a dedicated mother and wife, as well as a loyal, highly-reliable friend as so many have already testified.
Then, when our second child was born in November 2004, in the middle of the Wets Do It Again Tour, a few days after the birth I received a card in the post with an Exeter postmark on it. I opened it, and it was a card from Laureen addressed to me and my wife congratulating us on the birth of our son. This really touched me at the time - even in the middle of the Wets reunion tour, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence which meant that she would be travelling the length and breadth of Britain, Laureen had time for an act of kindness such as this. When I think back to my son's first week in this world and all the messages of congratulations and good luck, receiving the card from Laureen is one memory that stands out. It seems a sort of cruel irony that, in return, I am posting this message in memory of Laureen. However, given that Laureen always put other people before herself, I would like to think that this message, like all other messages on here, can provide some small comfort to Tony and Jonathan - which is what would be most important to Laureen herself, I'm sure.
I had no idea that Laureen was unwell, and it seems like only yesterday that she was rushing back and forth to care for her late father - as usual, putting others first. She is one of those people that I am glad to have known, although I never actually met her. She was, to quote the title of a Robbie Williams track "One of God's better people".
Despite not having met Laureen, I would say that on forums such as this one, people often get to know each other as 'virtual' friends, but I did feel that I got to know Laureen as a real friend, which is what she was to all of us on here. Having quoted a Robbie Williams track, I'm sure that Laureen would want me to end by quoting a Marti track. The most appropriate seems to be the one penned by Jimmy Dorsey on his latest album - "I'm glad there was you".