Stephen Hawking

and I met one day back in the 70's. He came in briefly to a  conference about disability looking for information about VOCAs - Voice Output Communication Aids - because he knew the likely course of his disease and he wanted to be ready when the time came.
The purpose of the conference was a little different and one of the organisers must have said something like, "Talk to Cat. Communication issues are her thing."
So, we had a talk - a long talk. He asked a lot of questions. I sometimes had to say, "I don't know" and sometimes I could say, "I don't know but I'll find out."
He kept telling me how much he still had to do - not "wanted" but "had" to do. At that time he thought he would be dead within "just a few years at most".  
And VOCAs were not nearly as advanced as they are now. We also discussed other ways of helping him communicate when the time came. Thankfully he didn't need them because he was able to speak long enough for a decent VOCA to become available.
Our relationship didn't end there. Stephen almost ran me over later in the day as he rushed past in his electric wheelchair - top speed was the only one he apparently knew.
I wrote to him about a year later and asked him for his support for what became International Literacy Year. I wasn't sure if he would remember me but he clearly did  because a very positive response came back.  For a while I think he must have been telling everyone he met about the idea of a year devoted to literacy because I had supportive letters I was not expecting from some very interesting people in the university world. He opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me.
Stephen strongly believed in the need for people to be not just literate but in the need for people to have a wide diversity of literacy skills in order to increase their understanding of science and the world around them. He was born on Newton's birthday and he died on Einstein's birthday. I think those facts would have amused him. He had a wicked sense of humour but he could also be difficult when things did not go the way he intended.  He could also be demanding.
Would he have been as well known if he had not had a disability? Almost certainly not but he used it to advance the cause of science and to denounce the changes to Britain's National Health System. He was concerned for many things, climate change,the environment, peace, religion and more all came under close scrutiny.
There have been a couple of his quotes doing the rounds of the internet. One is
      "Life would be tragic if it weren't funny".
The other is "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."
Both of those quotes deserve to be applied to all our lives.
And I can add my own Stephen quote,
      "Out of the way Cat! Mind those rear paws."
They were his words to me as he sped on down the footpath. And later it was, "Don't give up Cat. Mind those rear paws. There's so much you still have to do."
He was right. There was more to minding those rear paws than simply not getting run over and we both knew it was "have" to do it - not simply "want" to do it. Thanks for the memories mate.