David John TOPPING

I'm so sorry to hear this news. Sadly I couldn't be with you all to pay my final respects, as my uncle passed away and was buried the same day.
I've known David a very long time and feel very privileged to have known such an amazing person and friend. At the tech, I was the only girl in the class, so he took me under his wing and looked after me and made sure I was ok, and always made sure I had a smile on my face. Thats such a long time ago! And that's a friendship that I've carried all my life, finally catching up with each other during our time in Hayburns.
I miss the many conversations we had in the car, when he eventually called you back lol. I don't need to tell you all the nice things about him, and how funny he was. He'd always make you smile, or laugh at the most inappropriate times, as that made it funnier, but that was Davy. Whether he was pulling a silly face of just doing something daft. That was him all over.
But one thing about Davy, he gave his all, for his family. Ashley, Sandra, Richard and everyone else, and of course Gus. He just loved his family.
On Friday morning after I'd just heard the news, I was listening to Chris Evans interviewing a poet called Donna Ashworth, and she read out a poem. I thought it was so true about Davy.
"If every single person who has liked you in a lifetime were to light up on a map, it would create the most glitteringly beautiful network you could imagine. Throw in the strangers, you'd been kind to, the people you'd made laugh or inspired along the way, and that star-bright web of you would be an impressive sight to behold. You were much more than you thought you were. You did so much more than you realised. You were trailing a bright pathway that you didn't even know about. What a thing. What a thing indeed "
Big hugs to you all, and just remember that lovely impish smile as I will fondly do.
Irene Irene McGeehan Monday 17 November 2025