Yes, Helen's funeral and wake were a truly fitting send off for her - and I was delighted when the family asked me to play her little green accordion as a final tribute - I chose 'Blarney Pilgrim', 'Kesh Jig' and 'Foxhunters', as they were some of her favourite tunes that we'd played together on numerous occasions.

Helen and I had an odd sort of arrangement with accordions - she bought a blue Delicia a few years ago, and sold the little green Hohner to me... then she fell out with the blue one, so we did a swap... then she fell out with the green one again, and we swapped back... I've lost track of how many times we swapped altogether, but she finished up with the green one! Anyway, now I have both of them...

It was good that Ted could be there - I'd been to Derek Bradburne's funeral at Walton Crem that morning... so I barely had time to pick Ted up in Eccles and get over to Altrincham Crem, but we made it.

Ted did an emotional version of 'Lili Marlene' at the wake...