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Hi,
This is Sami, I am working here MER as Surveyor & MWD Engineer mostly Iran off shore. Some time I got chance to stay at Baker's staff  house/office at Kish Island. Last time when I was staying with Brian Collins  in staff house I found him very simple and honest.

Subject: Brian,
 

 Dear Mrs Collins
Its allready been a long time since that sad accident happened to Brian but i am taking that opportunity to tell you how much i miss him as a freind . I first met him allmost 5 year ago when we were working in Sirri field and all along these years i really appreciate his proffetionalisim and his  jovial and energic temper.

I was watching last week the rugby match France - Ireland (i am French) and at the end my first thaught was for Brian . For the first time i was happy that  Ireland beat France and i could almost heard him laughing.

Cordially
 Alain Levrero
............................................................. ..................
Alain Levrero
TOTAL SOUTH PARS
Drilling Operations Superintendent
Port Road , Kish Island
Islamic Republic of IRAN
Darryl,

I came across this verse; it seemed to capture something about Brian which I picked up from rest of you.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am diamond glints on snow.
I am sunlight on ripened grain.
I am gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in morning's hush
I am swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not  there. I did not die.

No-one is quite sure who wrote it: but I believe it was left in an envelope for his parents by Steven Cummins, a soldier killed on active service in   North of Ireland.

Operations Manager
Baker Hughes Russia Operations, Ins
24, Schlakoblochnaya Str.
Yuzhno, Sakhalinsk
Sakhalin Island - Russia 693000

Dear Darryl,

I was so very sorry to hear of your tragic loss of your brother....So shocking!! It is so difficult to come to terms with an unimaginable situation. I am sorry for the children and family that will have such a thing to cope with....They are fortunate to have you in their lives, as someone with strength and warmth and generosity of spirit.

I wish you all love and light during this time and know that though it seems that he is gone, he is never gone, he is just without a suit of clothes so that we can see and speak to him. He is eternal, pure and free and I am certain that he is surrounding all his loved ones with as much love as they can absorb.

Lots of love,
Roberta

A good friend of my father died two years ago and I wanted to write something to him to express some comfort for him, but I couldn't find any perfect words that made any sense and it became so difficult to contact him, because I felt I needed to be smart enough to know what  should be said and it was impossible.

Please forgive this.

I don't really know what to say at a time like this...and I know anything I say, wont make a difference to anything, but please let me foolishly attempt to express what I feel, inadequate though it will be in  se rotten circumstances.

Knowing BJ for shortest amount of time is one of   saddest parts of all this, for me, because I had been left thinking, after Christmas Lunch, that he was someone I was going to have fun of getting to know over next bunch of years. I can't believe that big laughing lug that I'd met less than eight months ago, has died.

Ken and I have both been bowled over by this event and   awful thing is that rest of life moves along for us... though not for you. expectancy that a person should still be walking through a family door, any door, or be bumped into, around a corner, is so weighted by  fact that that wont happen any more, that in some part of  world  y wont exist, instead of knowledge that, even though  y aren't seen from one month to   next,  y at least are still working through rush of life somewhere.

When Wendy's mum died, we were left with an enormous hole where a person should have been....and that's a huge place and is never filled again...and thankfully I learned that it's never expected to be filled, we just move on through   next series of steps...but also  re is   knowledge of how much   world was bettered by that person having once occupied space y were meant to fill.

I do know we are part of a greater all, whatever one wishes to call it. I don't care if people choose to take   piss out of me for this secured knowledge, because my own life has shown me enough proofs of this, that my doubts have left me.

Truths still turn out to be truths whether believed or not, so it doesn't really matter much at all, or than forgetting in times of stress and wanting to blame in times of ordeal. I've done it all myself, until I fortunately remembered. I make constant mistakes and seem to spend my life attempting to fix  m while walking uphill with seven bags of cement on my back, but that doesn't destroy   understanding that it's how we approach each day that counts and makes up a life, warts and all. It all seems to be about  human beings learning, until we achieve what we set foot on this planet for...that achievement not determined by man's approval, but our own knowing of when we've finished our deed. We only seem to stay as long as  is necessary...but that is also   wonder of our lives...we never seem to know how long we've given ourselves.

Please try and think about this for Brian. It's not much of a comfort for those that are left behind, I know, and it may seem like piffle, but I do feel it's right...we stay as long as we have to and  n we take our leave, some quietly, some awfully.

Why else to we choose to live lives crippled, unbelievably wealthy, diseased, healthy, terminally happy, totally selfish, famous, unknown... Life, an existence, a spirit, continues never-ending. I have no doubts. Brian did whatever he had to and no-one will ever know what that was unless he chooses to impart knowledge on some level... you'll be able to ask him yourself next time you see him.

None of this really matters today, but I hope there may be sense in it a year from now, or five years, or ten.

I don't know what I'd do if it was myself and Ken in your positions. I'd probably forget all I've attempted to say... and fall apart.

This life is so much about love and loss and I'd rather know pain than never to have experienced happiness of love.

God bless you and your families.

I'm sorry if this is just useless twaddle. I wish I could think of something perfect to say, but I can't.

Take care Big D.

William

The first was several years ago, when BJ was a member of the WHWL and he somehow managed to play well enough to win Cecil Walker's Captain's prize on the Saturday (despite a skinfull the night before)! The prize consisted of crystal glasses of some sort, and as Cecil presented BJ with the Captain's Prize with one hand, he very cleverly took it back with the other hand, as BJ (like myself and several others) was in no fit state to carry it.
The next morning BJ was in the back of my car for the journey home, when Cecil opened the car door and put the crystal on BJ's knee. BJ looked at the crystal and said "Rosser? Did you win this lovely crystal?" He had no memory of having been presented with it the night before! We had great fun teasing him all the way home to Lisburn.

Incidentally, that evening BJ and Fred Walker took themselves on a tour of all the pubs in the main street of Dunfanaghy. When I finally managed to catch up with them, they were in a bar with a band playing the Soldiers Song. Everyone was standing to strict attention, but BJ and Fred were on centre stage doing a Benny Hill impression complete with tongues out, huge grins and a scout salute! They were totally oblivious to the fact that one or two locals found this disrespectful and were starting to get 'fidgety.' Whilst I engaged them in conversation and tried to calm things down, BJ and Fred literally made a run for it and managed to escape without any trouble! To this day when I see Benny Hill do that salute, I think of Fred and BJ in Dunfanaghy.

Last year at Easter I again drove Fred and BJ to Dunfanaghy. As usual we had to stop at the odd hostelry on the way down, and the weekend was always a good opportunity to catch up on the gossip. This year BJ was talking about caravanning in Portstewart and of course we then teased him all weekend about whether he had gone the full hog and subscribed to Caravan Monthly?

By this time the organiser of the trip, BJ's former partner Noel Robinson, had realised that it was a good idea for Fred, BJ and myself to tee-off after lunch. This would mean we had less opportunity to visit the bars before the evening dinner and prize giving. However BJ was a step ahead of such terrible plans. Early on Saturday morning he asked me to drive the 3 of us to the Golf Club, where BJ used his charm on the starter, to get him to allow us to tee off at 11am - 3 hours before we were supposed to! You can imagine the result - the rest of the society were teeing off when Fred, BJ and myself were coming in to the clubhouse and heading into town for a few beers and a game of pool. Incidentally, BJ and Fred regarded themselves as the pool champions of Dunfanaghy!! I don't think that says a lot for the local competition!

Anyway, I hope these stories are of some use to you. I will miss BJ and all the fun we had. I can't help but smile when I think of the stories and it is so hard to accept that he has gone. I cant bear to think how much Lorna and the boys must be missing him.

When your album is complete, I would love the opportunity to see it sometime. Please keep in touch.

Ross McKelvey
 

How is everyone. I am back in Iran and today I went to Kish. I went down to the Beach and said a last goodbye. The guys are having a nice plaque made and it will sit on a nice patio at the scuba club. It will read Brian Collins a dear friend gone but never forgotten. A very true sentiment. I have been thinking for days what to write to you about Brian. I have so many lovely memories of a great guy. i will sit over the next few days and try and write it down. It is still hard to take in. All the guys keep asking me about him and how the funeral went. All I can think about is Lorna and the boys.

Please pass on to Lorna that i am thinking about her and the boys. Ross and Fred want me to come over in April to play in a golf weekend that the had with Brian. I could never fill his shoes but I think I will come over just to see everyone again and be able to walk the fairways he loved.

Take Care

Give my best to everyone and I will speak to you soon

Steve
 

a nicer person i have never had pleasure working with.
it can only be heavens gain.

john & helen platt
gasmec services

Darryl Please extend my sincere sympathy to all the family and give my regards to any of the gang you still see.

Kenneth Barr, Formerly of 25 Riverside Dr Lisburn.
( Kenny)