Bruce

I was on the train next to a woman and her daughter, both with perfect skin and a glow of youth. The mum tapped her  i-phone with perfectly manicured hands topped with extra long mauve acrylics. She straightened the cord on her earphones. The little girl was cute: dressed in a grey hooded tracksuit with a subtle black Mickey Mouse print and a thick Aran roll neck jumper over the top. Her hair was styled to match the print on her leggings and she fiddled with the handle of her pink child-sized wheeled suitcase, that I suspected went everywhere with her.
"Can I have something?" the little girl pleaded, turning her big brown eyes briefly towards me for support. Her mum gave her a box of juice, tapped her phone with a clicky nail and chatted to a voice we couldn't hear, laughing happily about when she thought they'd be home.

The little girl finished her juice just as her mum's mood changed and she said, sadly, "He died?"
The little girl pulled one earpiece from her mother's ear and tried to listen. Her mum took it from and continued the conversation but didn't put it back in her ear.
"Oh no. He died? When?"
The little girl picked up the earpiece and twisted the cord around her finger.
"He was quite old, wasn't her?"
The little girl move the ear bud closer to her, looked at me and chuckled, making me complicit in her naughtiness. Her mum continued, unaware.
"We haven't seen him about much lately. I liked him."
The little girl put the earpiece to her mouth and whispered, 'Hello Daddy.'
Mum gave no indication that Daddy had heard.
"Yeah he was tall. "
I felt sad. I wondered what their neighbour had been like.
"I liked the way his little white moustache twitched when he smiled at you. He always said,'nice to see you.'"

I sent a text to my daughter asking if Bruce Forsyth had died (she's quicker and more reliable than google). He had.

The mum finished her conversation and turned her attention back to the little girl and her suitcase handle.

I've been looking at all the tributes today and think that overheard conversation is one of the best.  We invited Bruce Forsyth into our homes for more than seventy years.  We grew up with him.  He was like a familiar and much loved neighbour.