Funeral Eulogy for my Wonderful Brother: Kieran Singh Hawker
This is the full Eulogy I gave to Kirean, at his funeral service for Family and Friends yesterday
NOTE: There is one swear word in the following oration and the name of Kieran's partner is not stated
The East Chapel, Bushbury Crematorium, Wolverhampton, West Midlands
Monday January 31st 2022
"Celebrant Hickinbotham, family, and friends.
On behalf of my Mother Daljit, Father William, brother’s Keanu and Kulraj and Kieran’s wonderful partner, I want to thank you all for your attendance this morning.
Knowing that I’m here giving the eulogy at the funeral of my 25-year-old brother, just 6 days after having an audience with The Earl of Wessex at work with several colleagues, very much illustrates the brutalness of life and the rollercoaster we all collectively ride.
These last several weeks have defined a rollercoaster in coming to terms of the loss – of not just a brother, but one simply decent and wonderful man.
The wonder of “WHY?” and the guilt of “How could I have helped him more?” will certainly live with me for the rest of my days.
However, all of us have felt immensely comforted, as a result of the enormous and incredible support given through messages of sympathy and other means of support in the last 5 and a bit weeks and I very much place our fullest thanks and appreciation on record. It has genuinely meant the world.
Even if the passing of a 25-year-old is beyond tragic, the story of Kieran’s life is one to be celebrated, knowing it saw a sometimes shy but outgoing guy grow up in rural Worcestershire and urban Wolverhampton and eventually took him to studying, living and finding true love in our capital city.
On the element of love, I have no doubt that the future which his partner and Kieran had together; not least after a considerable period of dating, was one that would have been fulfilling and life lasting. May you (the partner) know, that you are forever part of our family.
You can know that the man you came to know, was one whose ambition for success was measured and principled; measured through his cracking knowledge of French and International Business which he was studying at the University of Westminster and principled thanks to him remembering his roots.
Those roots were laid in the beautiful town of Great Malvern in Worcestershire, which once saw him share a session of secondary school detention with singer Cher Lloyd. I’m not sure what he fully thought about Cher’s music, but his love of drum and bass tracks; not least Chase and Status’s End Credits was something he couldn’t help sharing.
Another wonder in himself was his creative side, particularly through his A* art and some epic Marvel drawings and love of the French language – the latter of which served me very well, when revising for a module which I self-took at University in 2018.
On the sporting side, he took a narrow view of things, even despite being an Arsenal supporter and this was typically shown whenever I reported to him The Gunners didn’t perform well and his simple response was that of “Shit”. He much preferred martial arts with him having got a few belts up the Taekwondo ladder and very much stopped whenever a Men’s 100M final hit the screen, of which Usain Bolt’s title defence at London 2012 thrilled us all.
Of course too, he did sometimes cause polite havoc; most memorably for me when he once deliberately drove the wrong way on a game of Mario Kart, just for the sake of confusing and annoying the mind and perhaps for some, when on a residential trip to Swansea through an old youth group in Malvern, he and others were somehow kicked out of a Morrisons!
Most of all to me, Kieran’s down to earth nature and sheer love for his people is what we will all strongly remember.
Even if the majority of our calls were greeted through “Yo! What are you up to?”, which the last I had was on November 24th and which I took in my office, I couldn’t help raise a large smile.
Whether those calls was him asking for a financial hand; which made sense whilst living in London and in which I as his brother the majority of the time responded with what I could give, speaking about work where he always felt impressed by my role at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games or on many an occasion chatted politically; not least when I had the honour of running for Council here in Wolverhampton last May, very much invigorated me.
And on the political element, 3 abiding memories of his typical and wonderful support spring to mind:
- His attendance to my declaration of being Elected as a Member of the UK Youth Parliament for the city in 2014, where his delight at my victory was maybe too plain for some;
- The words of “I can see your smile, after a really great day” once I returned from attending Youth Parliament’s House of Commons sitting on November 14th of that year;
- And despite many a struggle for various reasons, him being able to attend my Graduation ceremony, for the BA Politics degree I completed at Sheffield Hallam in November 2019
Some will say those are relatively small things to celebrate, but as an Autistic person: moments of the kind: are to me, simply precious.
They demonstrated the nature of a brother, a man and a human whose has been so cruelly taken away and whose potential to do the most spellbinding things will never be fulfilled.
Once we are comfortable, we will state the reasoning behind Kieran’s body ceasing to function and once we do, I know that I will endeavour to campaign to ensure, that what happened to him, doesn’t happen to others.
To know I or others are never able to pick the phone and speak to him again makes my heart very heavy.
But to know this man existed for exactly 25 years and 8 months is a period which the history of time cannot take away and a privilege which will fill my heart with the biggest honour, knowing Kieran’s life was one that was extraordinarily well lived.
So before we commit him and his soul through closing the curtains, I simply say and in his beloved French: Repose-toi pour toujours mon frère et sache simplement qu'à partir d'ici sur terre, je te ferai toujours baisser les yeux - à la fois avec un sourire profond et plein de fierté; which in English states forever rest easy bro and simply know that from here on earth, I will always make you look down – both with a deep smile and full of pride.”
ENDS
