We knew pretty early on that Emma was going to be an important part of Dan’s life. This was confirmed when we received a phone call asking us to go up to Leeds to meet Jan and Neil for the first time. We didn’t have any experience of “meeting the parents” and on the way up we joked that this lunch was probably the most important interview we had ever had. There was added pressure as Neil was a big Stoke fan and we were big Arsenal fans, so it was a Montague & Capulets situation we were walking into. We didn’t need to worry, we understood straight away why Emma made our son so happy and it was because she came from such fabulous parents. Neil and Jan put everyone at ease with their warmth and friendship.
We shared a love of family, football and music. We discovered that Neil and I had been at the same Neil Young concert some years previous, it’s a small world. When he found out that we still bought our music on vinyl, Emma turned up at ours a couple of weeks later with a big box of LPs as Neil had all his music digitally.
 Neil and Jan are the cornerstone to a family that will band together to get through the times ahead. Neil will be so dearly missed, but he did such a good job at living that he will long be remembered in so many ways, with a laugh or a smile and a story. So tonight we’ll put a Steely Dan LP on the turntable and raise a glass to Neil.
Our thoughts are with all his family and friends at this time.
Rick and Nicki Wood