Saturday was indeed a wonderful ceremony.

A lot of care had clearly gone into covering all the aspects of wonkeydonkey's* life in the service at the Unitarian church where she was closely involved - including being their treasurer for a while.
(I noticed that she was present in the group photograph outside introducing the people of the church.)

There were photographs and recordings of her speaking intermingled with talks from various people including the central speech from Jim her husband and other members of her family - both her daughters contributed with readings and music. Zeebra capably covered the DS & BB slice of her life. (I was hugely relieved that there was a section devoted to that as it made me feel less crazy turning up!)
The service sheet also included wonkey's contribution to the Kindred Pilgrim Souls book mentioned earlier in the thread.

Afterwards I had the pleasure of meeting zeebra (and her son) and minkski.

The walls at the reception also had photos and documents arranged to give a run-through of wonkeydonkey's life from childhood through her degree, career in the police force and beyond, family, love of animals (notably donkeys), involvement with the church and writing. This included a section for DSBB with a picture of wonkeydonkey linked by a speech-line to the XKCD cartoon that ValW included earlier . There were some printouts of her posts (I think derived from the short list I posted earlier in this thread) and, of course, a signed picture of Luke Anderson.

There was also an area to leave tributes, and here there were also some DS printouts, which I think also came from this thread.


*(I found out her 3D-world name some years ago, but it feels too weird using it even after the service. )

Quick note:
RabidWolverine1 (ironically one of DSBB's least rabid posters) didn't feel comfortable getting involved in this thread, but wove a touching dedication to wonkeydonkey into the opening post of one of his competition threads (at the end).

Yohinnchild is also dedicating this year's all time countdown (which wonkey voted in of course) to her.

Oh those tributes are so sweet! Thanks for reporting back about the service Trumbles, I'm glad you, Zeebra and Minkski were able to represent us. I can't help but chuckle that they included that cartoon, she really knew how to send up her prolific posting ability! She used to mention that she thought she was the only poster in DS history to write a post so long the mods had to split it up to fit it on the site. She had a lovable mix of pride and embarrassment at the fact!

Thanks for posting thiis, very nice to actually hear her and very moving words

Thanks for this, sounded very fiitting.

I've only just come across this thread. I'm so upset and shocked! Wonkeydonkey was always one of my biggest champions, there to defend me when the going got tough. We had interesting chats on topics not "BB"-related like the suffragette movement. She was always very knowledgeable about politics and history.

I had the privilege of meeting her once. I have a lovely photograph of her with Munkitty Tunkitty when she came to a tour I was giving of the Museum of London. Carole and Eugene (from "BB" 2007 and 2005 respectively) were there and she chatted away to everybody.

I visit a Unitarian church too sometimes as my aunt and uncle are involved and I join them for play readings, some events and the occasional service. They're such warm, friendly, positive, all-embracing people that I can just imagine wonkeydonkey fitting right in there. Her values with respect to compassion and social justice would also make her feel very welcome in such company.

I believe we go somewhere afterwards. I know that she will be looking down here, pleased to see that she has touched so many lives, including the lives of people whom she had not been able physically to see before.

Rest in peace, wonkeydonkey, and thank you so much for all your support over all these years

- Jonty xxx

Thank you for your lovely tribute Jonty.

I couldn't make the memorial service but am pleased a report was posted on here. What a tribute to such a warm and kind lady this thread is - she would have been very touched but also embarrassed to read all the tributes xx

Yes, she'd be very modest about how tributes are still coming in a month later. Can you believe it was a month ago today? It's felt like the longest month of my life.

Yes Val, it does feel like a much longer time.

Thank you to everyone for letting us know about Wonkey's memorial service, all of the other information and the wonderful tributes xxx
19 pages says it all and my word, don't we miss her.

Plus another 13 pages in General Discussion. Absolutely unprecedented. I doubt anyone will even notice when most of us disappear!

I haven't been on here much in recent years due to my waning interest in Big Brother but so sad to learn this today about WonkeyDonkey.

Her contributing posts on here were always a joy to read and difficult to skip past not that I would as I found what she wrote inciteful For me she became one of those posters that would give me a lightbulb moment where suddenly everything made sense.

Even though I never had the pleasure of meeting her in real life I do feel we got to know her through what she would write on here and she oozed warmth, passion, concern for others and fairness, she would often make me smile from reading some of her witty retorts and she wasn't afraid to give others a ticking off where it was needed.

WonkeyDonkey will be missed by many but not forgotten.

RIP.

This thread is such a lovely tribute to her. I hope her family can get comfort from reading this some time in the future.

Does anyone else wish there was a "like" button on here?

like

Like for me too

This may be unnecessary - especially two weeks after the event - but I thought that some of the people who would have liked to attend the memorial might like to see the service sheet (with permission):
Page 1 page 2 page 3

A print out of wonkeydonkey's contribution to the Kindred Pilgrim Souls book was also included, but I haven't scanned that as it was identical to the text zeebra included in post 327 of this thread, bar paragraph breaks.

It's been said various ways already, but re-reading the extract above about helping people who aren't "…easy to help, or at all grateful" reminded me that that was very much the way she posted on here: battling for HMs whom everyone else had decided were utterly awful in the hope of proving that they were, um, only fairly awful, despite not necessarily liking them very much and finding this exhausting (Veri's link). I believe she battled for people more fruitfully in the real world, but it shows how someone's character can come through clearly online even in a place as unlikely as a BB forum.

(A point I tried to explain to someone after the memorial service. They were polite.)

As I've rather needlessly bumped this thread (if you can bump a pinned thread), let me add a bit from the recording of wonkeydonkey talking about her time as a policewoman on the beat. (This is all from memory, so probably littered with mistakes…)

I was never that hot on arresting people. Everyone always seemed to have such excellent reasons and explanations for things. On one occasion however, I noticed a car which had quite a lot of Sellotape stuck onto it. In fact the Sellotape seemed to be playing quite a crucial role in holding it together.

On closer inspection I also noticed that the tax disc had been taken out and the year changed with Tipp-Ex. The couple who owned the car were vague about how this had happened but said they had bought the car a few years ago, and eventually conceded it was unlikely the previous owner had Tipp-Exed in '83 in 1979.

For some reason I ended up going back to their flat - and was surprised to find a number of middle-aged men sitting around their living room. It turned out that the local Substance Abuse centre, which mostly dealt with alcoholics, had closed down nearby and many of those who relied on it had nowhere to go. So the couple had told them they were free to wander into their sitting room at will. At regular intervals either hot tomato soup or value beans on toast would make their way out of the kitchen to the visitors.

I had this mad idea that they could be nominated for an award. After all if businessmen and civil servants could get them just for doing their jobs, why not? But it seemed difficult to phrase the application: 'I was considering arresting this pair for fraud when I went back to their flat and found it was full of alcoholics. Anyhoo, how about giving them an O.B.E.?


I think I must have skimmed over this sentence on first reading - that's hilarious .
Do you know what the topic was?


Incidentally, when I was putting up the service sheet I was reminded that I'd tripped over wonkey's photobucket in another thread.
There's hardly anything in there, but there it is anyway.

Oh what a sweet story, thanks for telling us!

I don't think she ever linked us to the mega-post. If any of our old guard happen to remember what it is I'd be very grateful.

Thanks for the links to her service sheet, lovely service. That anecdote from her Police days is a perfect example of the person she was right to the end !

Mention of that mega post rings a bell too, wish i could remember where it was !

I particularly liked this story of WD's, it was great to hear her tell it!

I voted in it this year, for the first time, only really because of her - last year, at the result of my alltime favourite, Tracey, her comment was something like 'her sweet and loyal fan must have stayed away.'

She's known me via c4 for years, and we've messaged on here, so I knew it was about me so my vote, inc. Tracey at #1, was really dedicated to her. Even if she was no T fan.

The service sheets are lovely.

Thanks for sharing Trumbles and all

RIP Wonkey.

You touched many lives.

Heartfelt condolences to your loved ones.

Wonkey's husband has left a fundraising update on Facebook. To date, including the Justgiving pages, they've raised over £2000 for Meadow House Hospice and £2660 for Sight Savers. He's pointed out that until December 15th the government is matching any donations for Sight Savers so if you'd like to contribute your money is worth double.

https://www.justgiving.com/Remembering-CarolineBlair/

That is great news Val - just shows how much Caroline was loved