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My beautiful friend, Thomas Patrick Bevins died on St. Patrick's Day. He was buried yesterday and tomorrow would have been his 69th birthday. The first time I met him 12, 13 years ago, was at 'Woodtown Manor' a Georgian farmhouse in Rathfarnham, Southern Ireland. I had gone to visit a friend who was living there while(st?) recovering from the breakdown of his marriage; he was renting the 'Manor' and Thomas went with it, because Thomas was the butler and had been for years, so you moved into the 'Manor' and Thomas was part of the deal. I had never met a butler before, nor indeed since, but when I stood on the (seriously Jane Austin) front porch and Thomas opened the (seriously Jane Austin) front door, we looked at each other and fell in love. But let me clarify this by saying that Thomas was, very good to his mother, and adored Princess Di, so it was an emotional bonding as opposed to a physical one, although we hugged a lot. I found Thomas to be a magical being; to my knowledge he had never had a relationship, but nature and animals were his great loves... and the 'Manor'. I asked him once if he had ever had a relationship - diplomacy, tact and discretion not being among(st?) my most notable qualities - and he looked at me with large, piercingly blue eyes and said 'Ah, Jackson, you're bold!' But.... he did tell me - at a later date - that in the early sixties, or it could even have been the late fifties - Mr. Graves, an American artist who was renting the 'Manor' at the time, was visited by John Huston and Montgomery Clift. Thomas was 19 years old, and stunningly beautiful; jet black hair, those extraordinary eyes, and a kindness that shone out from a photograph he showed me that was taken at that time. Apparently Thomas and Montgomery Clift sat at the kitchen table and talked. At the end of a four hour conversation, MC asked Thomas if he would return with him to America and look after him. They had fallen for each other, big time, but Thomas declined the invitation. 'Why' I asked him when he told me, 'if you felt that strongly about each other, why didn't you go with him?' 'Because I couldn't leave the 'Manor,' he replied. 'Have you ever regretted it'? asked Miss Tact and Sensitivity 1996. 'It's my greatest regret' (nice one Jacks) he said, 'but I knew that if I went I would regret leaving the 'Manor'; 'I knew that I belonged here, but he was the only man I ever loved.' So Thomas put his love into the 'Manor,' his friends and his animals. He was - to me - a hugely romantic man. He had great style, loved to sing - he had a wonderful voice - and the effortless elegance of the true gentleman. But what I loved and valued most in Thomas was his wisdom, and his huge kindness. When we first met I was experiencing a slight hiccup in the cash flow and twice a month, Thomas would sent me 10 punts - 'for a bottle of bubbles Jackson'. He continued to do this after he retired when punts had been replaced by euros and he was living on his - meagre - pension. He would ring me every Sunday afternoon at 4'o'clock and bring me up to date with what had been happening to the Royal Family. I'm convinced that if Thomas had appeared on 'Mastermind' with the Royal Family as his specialist subject, he would have cleaned up. Thomas loved glamour, film stars and - let's be honest - pretty much anything camp. (i.e. The Royal Family) He adored Vivian Leigh. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in particular. Now, what I haven't mentioned is, if you had the Thomas' Seal of Approval' you had a friend for life, if you DIDN'T... leave town. He had very particular likes and dislikes did Thomas, but his judgment was usually pretty much spot-on. I received the coveted 'Seal' because I loved the 'Manor' and fitted Thomas' idea of a 'glamorous woman'. Phew! I spent hours walking in the grounds with a glass of bubbles in one hand, and a cigarette in the other; I explored the secret garden and lay in the grass on hot Summer afternoons wearing nothing but a pair of earrings. My friend Jen rang me one evening and when I told her she said, 'darling, what earrings?' She was thrilled when I said 'the (faux) diamond studs.' I loved those evenings walking the avenue (as the drive to the 'Manor' was called,) the heat of the day's sun still warm on my face, the leaves from the trees casting soft shadows in the approaching dusk, and when night finally fell I would watch the stars, huge and shining, come awake in the sky. Thomas was in no way an intellectual, what he was, was a sensitive; he had a profound ability to communicate with Nature and animals, a sixth sense, a knowingness that went way beyond intellectual understanding. He was a magician an alchemist, a profoundly spiritual man who taught me so much, gave me so much and always made me laugh. And yesterday we buried him. The funeral, like the man himself, was extraordinary. You could feel the spirit of Thomas so strongly, and every person in that Church was there because he had touched their soul in some mysterious way. Two of the group Clannad were there, (Clannad had spent eight years in the 'Manor' during the 80's) and when - Moira - I think it was - and if it wasn't -please forgive me - sang 'Danny Boy', the purity of the voice, combined with the majesty of the occasion, caused every heart to miss a beat, made us weep as one. It was a cold, grey day, but as his coffin was lowered into the ground, the sun burst through the clouds, and sparkled and glittered, and danced and shone like the man himself. You will live in my heart forever beloved friend, it was a privilege to have loved and been loved by you, I am so much richer for having known you, and I will treasure your memory, always.
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