Because of the time constraints of Jon's funeral, I was asked to trim my speech down to around two minutes. Below is the original longer version that I wrote. Nick Ladies, Gentlemen and friends of Jon Wesley, for those of you who do not know me, my name is Nick and I was Jon’s friend for 24 years & his boss for the last 17 years. I am still struggling – as I am sure you are – to come to terms with the reality of Jon’s sudden, tragic and premature passing. I had a very close relationship with Jon and was in constant communication with him – even now, when my mobile telephone goes, or I get a text message, I am still expecting it to be him because I spoke with him all the time. Jon was special, somebody who really cared about people and how they felt, he was an eternal optimist who loved to make people laugh. He was a real family man, and was immensely proud of his children and their achievements. Jon very much enjoyed his hobbies and was pretty obsessive about them, certainly while I knew him, he had intensive bouts of glider flying, coy carp keeping, making and flying rockets and sea fishing. For any hobby or activity that he adopted, Jon would be very enthusiastic and would commit himself fully. I believe that over the years, these activities gave him really great pleasure. Jon was sharp, with a very quick mind and had a huge sense of humour – just look at the coffin over there – that was something that he wanted and particularly asked for at this ceremony. It is true that Jon was not particularly religious but personally, I like to think that Jon would be smiling down on us in this situation. Perhaps, because of his unique sense of humour and love of making people laugh, Jon should have been on stage because he could be fantastically funny at times, but in any event, he was really lucky because he ended up doing a job that he was both interested in and loved. Jon was a natural and brilliant salesman and he excelled in that role. The response to Jon’s passing has been overwhelming within our industry, and this demonstrates exactly how respected Jon was. I said earlier that Jon had a huge sense of humour – well actually not only was it big, but it was rather wicked as well! I remember vividly, that I had travelled abroad to an Exhibition with Jon shortly after we began working together. The Company had just produced its first colour catalogue, which was quite impressive and perhaps an inch thick. Jon was very proud of the catalogue. At the Exhibition we found a product range that we would like to buy – it was from a German modelling company and they had a quite attractive woman manning their stand. Having ascertained that she spoke English, Jon proceeded to slam our catalogue on her counter and tell her that we wanted to buy her company’s products – She glanced down at the catalogue, flicked a few pages and then stunned us by saying:- “it is big isn’t it?”, to which Jon replied immediately “why thank you” – the German woman, who understood English perfectly, and turned a very bright red colour immediately. In subsequent years, every time somebody in the office mentioned that anything was big, the standard response would be:- “why thank you” !!!!!!!!!!! I have reflected in the recent weeks since Jon’s passing about our working relationship. Seeing someone almost daily for 17 years of your working life cannot fail to leave an indelible mark on you. In our own way, and having worked together for so long, Jon and I had formed a special relationship. Over that time, we had formed our own unique way of communication. We would change subjects mid-flow of conversation and perfectly follow each other’s speech mode – we’d both do it and know exactly what the other person was talking about and where they had jumped to in the conversation. Thinking about it now, I guess that there was just loads going on and lots to talk about!!!! Anyway, I know that this really confused the hell out of people – I even remember Jon telling me that even Sandra could not follow our conversations!!!! – I think she was listening to Jon on the telephone to me one evening and had complained to Jon that she didn’t understand what we were talking about! So, just for the record Sandra, it was not a code, it was just how we talked to each other! Jon Wesley – husband, father, friend, colleague, modeller, fisherman and much, much more. In fact, to sum him up in a few words:– a great guy……or if Jon were here today, he would have said:- “what a guy” – Because Jon loved and had many catch phrases and sayings that were taken from anywhere, TV, film even computer games – but in this particular case, from the TV programme Red Dwarf. It isn’t possible for me to put into words the importance of true friendship and just how much Jon meant to me or all of us here, but losing Jon is a huge loss and of course, it goes without saying, that he’ll be sadly missed. But despite this his memory will live on with all of us.