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6. Sal Qureshi - 2009-05-11 13:01:27 |
| Every now and then I think about Daniel. I shared many classes with him at CLS and I will always remember him as a clever, kind and sensitive person. My best wishes go to his family. |
" target=_blank> 5. Spencer Shaw - 2009-03-15 00:31:30 |
Was just thinking about Daniel and our time at Leeds University. I guess i just want to say hi. Bit bizarre thing to write really but its what i feel.
Spencer |
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4. Julie Schwartz - 2008-11-24 23:24:47 |
Hello,
Brian, it was good to meet you on the Sea to Sea Hike in Israel. After settling in back in Toronto I visited Daniel’s web site. Your family’s journey has been a remarkable one. I wish you a peaceful future, and clear and flat hiking trails.
It would be a pleasure to see you again next year in Israel.
Sincerely,
Julie Schwartz |
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3. Martyn Niman - 2008-07-28 21:53:47 |
I was good friends with Daniel in primary school - I came round to play with him many times at his house and have really happy memories playing computer games, board games and more. I always remember eating these really nice tival sausages for lunch! and having a lot of fun with Daniel.
I really should have kept in touch with him when we both went to different secondary schools but I remember more recently seeing Daniel on UJS conference and really catching up.
Daniel was one of the few people in primary school who I met up with socially and was a really good person who was fun and clever and I wish him and all the family only good and blessings.
Martyn Niman
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2. Gabrielle Baigel - 2007-01-14 13:42:55 |
Dear All,
I just wanted to write a few words about how important Daniel was to me.
I was friendly with Daniel during and after university and will always have wonderful memories of him. He helped me a lot with my maths course, was a great friend and taught me everything I know about eighties music and snooker (although it’s still not much).
One of the most important things I will remember about Daniel’s friendship was his ability to listen and understand, he was always there to talk to and we almost always felt the same way about things, so his advice was invaluable. He was also one of the wittiest people I know, he would often be very quiet for most of the evening, and then sum up the whole evening in one dry remark.
Some of the sillier things I remember are that he would make me laugh by eating cereal (with milk!) out of the plastic bag in the box in order to avoid washing up, and another time he was being very mathematical while following one of his grandmother’s recipes, by measuring half a stock cube exactly with a ruler.
There are no words that will do justice to what a special, kind, witty and intelligent person he was and I will always regret not telling him that in person, and not calling him more often.
I hope that you find comfort in the fact that he was very important to so many people, especially me and will always be remembered with lots of love and affection.
Love Gabrielle Baigel |
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1. David Hopkins - 2007-01-13 16:04:33 |
Hi Daniel!
Do you remember me? You were in my actuarial science class and we used to chat afterwards on the train journey home. Teachers always say they remember the good students (and the bad ones). The best ones, they never forget! I’ve been reading everything your friends and family have written on the website. Although we didn’t know each other very well, their descriptions of your honesty, your kindness to animals and your sense of humour all fit in with the image I had of you.
I contacted your Dad a few weeks ago and we went for a long walk. He told me everything that had happened. I wish I’d read your message earlier, that you didn’t want us to mourn for you and that you’d achieved everything you wanted to. In fact I’ve thought about you many times over the last year and I feel that I’ve lost something very important, now that you are not here. Which is why I wanted to write to you now. I don’t have any funny stories to tell, so I’m afraid that a lot of what I’m going to say will be about myself. I hope you don’t mind.
Your Dad told me that your friends were very important to you. I’ve always been the same. I sometimes joke that there’s only 1 person in 100 I’d even consider being friends with. But it’s actually probably more like 1 in a 1000! But you were one of the people I’d hoped one day to be friends with. Although we only met a few times, I always felt there was a special bond between us, that somehow I already knew you, and that we were supposed to be friends. (A lot of the conversation I had with your Dad consisted of me saying “I was just the same” and “I used to do that too”!) Unfortunately I left things too late and we didn’t get a chance to compare notes on our similarities and common interests, and the silly little things in life. I didn’t get a chance either to tell you how much admiration and respect I had for you, although I think you could probably tell.
Your marathon running was a surprise to me. I knew nothing about that until I saw the photos your Dad posted on your website. He told me how important that was to you. I’ve put the picture of you beating your 3-hour target on my wall. 2 hours 51, hey? If a marathon’s 26.22 miles, I make that an average of 9.2 miles per hour. (I’ve just discovered that you’d prepared a spreadsheet with a statistical analysis of your times! Great minds think alike, hey?) I’m impressed by the determination you must have had to achieve that time. I think, like me, you always set yourself very high standards and targets.
My clearest memory of you is from one afternoon in one of our tutorial classes when the students were working through a set of practice questions and I was walking round helping them sort out any problems they were having. When I came to your desk, you were already several questions ahead of the others – as usual. You lifted your pen and said “I don’t know where to go next”. I just pointed to something you’d written earlier in your notes. “Ah!” you said, then immediately finished off your answer. You just needed one small pointer to help you join the dots. Unlike with the other students, I knew I didn’t have to say a word to explain it to you.
If only real life was that easy, hey? When I look around, it seems that for other people the path through life is so obvious and natural, progressing seamlessly from teenage parties, through university, then on to career, marriage and kids. But things have never seemed that easy to me and I gave up long ago trying to “fit in”. We played a game at our office Xmas party last month. I scored “very high” on the “maths geek” rating. And I was the only one who did, even though there were fifteen actuaries present! Most people would have been ashamed about that, but in fact it made my day. I think perhaps it would have made your day too.
Thinking of the strange unpredictable world we are all born into and all the things that life throws at us reminds me of the old joke; “Stop the world, I want to get off!” That made me laugh the first time I heard it, but I know the feeling well – 2005 was the worst year ever for me too. I’d already lost another friend a few months earlier. (I say “another” friend because I’ll always think of you as a friend, not just as one of my students.) But 2006 was a bit better. And I’ve got high hopes for 2007, so let’s wait and see!
Anyway, thanks for listening. Rest in peace now, Daniel. I’ll miss you.
David Hopkins
“Ni wnawn, wrth ffoi am byth o’n ffwdan ffôl, Ond llithro i’r llonyddwch mawr yn ôl.”
[This quotation is from the last lines of the Welsh poem “Dychwelyd” (“Returning”) by TH Parry-Williams (1931). Not easy to translate literally, but the meaning is roughly; “All we can do by fleeing forever from the turmoil of our crazy world is to slip back into the great stillness”.]
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