In 1985 the musical Les Miserables rather tentatively transferred from the RSC to The Palace Theatre.
My friend Frances Ruffelle and I excitedly went out and bought matching dressing room towels and headed towards the theatre where we met our new crew.
Les Mis is the first musical to never have a blackout and so the crew became part of us, coming on in costume to whisk off barrels, tables and props.
There was one young man with lots of floppy blonde Duran Duran hair and beautiful blue eyes.
An incorrigible flirt, he charmed us all.
Alex Bremer was only 18 and I had a boyfriend but I loved his easy charm and public school manners.
When you share an defining experience like opening Les Mis, it somehow connects you for life.
Alex remained on the crew for many years. He met his beautiful and elegant wife Miriam, a dancer, when she was working front of house.
I saw him over the years at various gigs. He and his brother Jack, who had also joined the Les Mis crew (advised by Alex that theatre was a great place to meet women) had set up 3B, a web design company.
They ran and host my website. Alex and Mim adopted a kitten off me. We Facebooked and tweeted, staying connected.
When Les Mis celebrated its 25th anniversary with a big concert at the O2, I asked Alex to have my plus one ticket. I couldn't think of anyone I wanted to share the evening with more.
I'd pore over their perfect family photos on Facebook. Two beautiful children, a perfect blonde family, so full of life and energy with an appetite for fun I envied and loved to see.
I "liked" photos of George and Lizzy, writing words like "bunny", "edible" and "angel" under them.
It looked like the Bremer's had everything.
Then in February, I got an email from Alex.
Lizzy had been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. A rare aggressive cancer.
I was singing up near the Arctic circle. Everything was covered with ice, glittering and beautiful. At night I saw the Northern Lights. I ran out to a shop in -45 degrees, wanting to do something. I bought a little toy seal, sent it off.
10 days ago Alex and Mim brought Lizzy home from hospital.
She died two days after her second birthday.
Showing huge bravery and staying strong for George, a few days later they accompanied Frances and I to the Hyde Park Festival to see Frances' daughter, pop star Eliza Doolittle singing.
George had been primed for the occasion, watching YouTube clips of Eliza doing her thing.
After the show we took him backstage to see her. He hid behind his mother, overwhelmed by his first crush. He kept saying he wanted to see her and when Frances duly got her, he struck this pose...
Pretty much what his dad did when he met Frances and I back in 1985...
It made us all roar with laughter and we had a brilliant day out.
Today with great dignity, courage and grace, the Bremer's laid Lizzy to rest.
Frances had visited Alex and Lizzy in hospital on Lizzy's birthday
and he'd said to her "you know, when you go through something like this, you realise nothing really matters"
And he's right.
In the end, all we have, is love.
I think whether you believe in a God or not, that's what Victor Hugo meant.
"To love another person is to see the face of God"
Miriam Bremer is running marathons for the fight against Neuroblastoma.
This year the Les Mis V Phantom charity football match is in Lizzy's honour and funds are being raised for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.
@rebeccacaine 16 July, 2013
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