Bonnie Tyler funeral: family's thank you to Swansea

Bonnie Tyler’s family have publicly thanked the people and businesses of Swansea who came together for her funeral, saying the care and compassion shown to them was “immeasurable”.

The message, posted on the singer’s official page on behalf of her husband Robert Sullivan and the extended family, names more than a dozen organisations behind Monday’s farewell at Swansea Minster, from the funeral directors to the sound engineers.

Around a thousand people gathered outside the Minster for the service, which was streamed to fans around the world, before the singer, born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, was laid to rest at a private family service.

The family’s warmest words went to William Pressdee Co-op Funeralcare. “From the day Bonnie arrived home to our last ‘Bye Darling’, the whole family and team went over and above anything we could have asked for,” they wrote. “Your care and compassion is immeasurable and we thank you all so very much.”

Swansea Minster “and everyone here were amazing”, the family said, thanking Reverend Canon Justin Davies, who led the service, for putting “the passion in to the service” and making it “so very special”.

A career highlight, sung one last time

Only Men Aloud, who sang Bridge Over Troubled Water and Total Eclipse of the Heart beside the coffin, were thanked for “the beautiful singing during the service and after, and your friendship”.

The choir replied with a message of their own. “Recording Total Eclipse of the Heart with Bonnie was a career highlight for us all,” they said, “and to be able to sing that very song at her funeral was incredibly special.”

The message also reveals where the family gathered afterwards: the Brangwyn Hall hosted the wake, described as “a great venue fitting for our Bonnie”, with JR Events and Catering praised for “the beautiful flavours” and Eve Francesca Designs for “the gorgeous flowers in all areas”.

South Wales Police officers in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot were thanked for the escorts, and Swansea Council for the road closures and its staff on the day, while Edwards Coaches carried the extended family who followed the hearse.

There was thanks too for Oystermouth Castle, which hosted a retro event on the Sunday before the funeral, “and all who took part”.

Buffoon Media and streaming platform Lounges.tv were credited for taking the service to a global audience. Lounges.tv said it had been “beyond a privilege” to help tens of thousands of fans around the world experience the moment together.

‘Leam and 24/7’, and the adoration Bonnie never quite believed

Two personal tributes stand out. Liam Brigg and David Barrett, “or Leam and 24/7 as you were so warmly known” to Bonnie, put together a lifetime of memories in a video shown at the wake, with the family noting Liam had left his wife at home in Boston to pay his respects.

The pair also ran her social media pages, where the family said Bonnie “would look up everyday and still not believe all the adoration was for her”.

Swansea Minster responded to the family’s message with its own: “The Minster is available to the whole community during all of life’s good times and sad times.”

The family have asked for donations to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales and Cerebral Palsy Cymru instead of flowers, for the singer who died on 8 July at the age of 75.