my beautiful old fiddle that I learned to play on after a father's friend gave it to me has had a fatal accident. It was a good fiddle objectively - nice tone, playability, appearance (very dark wood) - and I knew how I felt about it emotionally and was very careful with it (though it isn't hard to find a nice fiddle, at least for a few hundred pounds and upwards).

It happened today. I got into one of the Derry Taxis that does the same route as the buses and pick up individual passengers along the route until the taxi is full. I was on my way to get a bus to the Fleadh Cheoil (music fest) in Letterkenny. I was in the front seat so I exited on the street side when we got to Foyle St where the taxis terminate by the bus station. Some things fell out of an unzipped pocket in my small rucksack. I didn't know the pocket was unzipped but I think the driver knew I was bending down to pick them up. Then I closed the door of the taxi but was still bent over to pick up my rucksack and fiddle to go. The fiddle was in between me and the taxi. I thought the driver knew I was there and I was startled as he pulled out. The car ran over a tiny corner of my fiddle case and I heard a small crack.

Although it's good it wasn't me who was hit, the damage to the fiddle is irreparable. The case isn't much damaged but the top half of the violin body, front back and sides, is in bits.

I don't know who the driver was, though I'd probably know him if I saw him again. The other drivers from the same company who were there didn't know who it was and didn't hold up much promise of compensation as they said the driver isn't responsible after the passengers exit the taxi. They asked if the instrument could be repaired, I said maybe - it would probably need a whole new front and wouldn't be the same instrument -- but I had only had a brief look at that point and the damage is much worse than I initially thought.

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when I do get another fiddle, I have a cheap Chinese one that I'll nprobably donate to a music school. What would be the best way to attach a label in memory of that fiddles' previous owner and the person who gave me the good fiddle top