Words for Friends #9

This is part of a new series of blogs entitled Words for Friends, in which I will try to acknowledge some people in my life for whom words of thanks are not nearly enough.

These living epitaphs to my true and lovely friends are published in a random order as fancy takes me.

#9 Clare

Clare is quite simply a rock and my best friend. She is someone I trust and turn to when life becomes tough or we have reason to celebrate.

She is the mother of my son Nathan’s best friend and  we have both marveled at how their friendship has remained close, even though they have been geographically separated by 200 miles for the past two years.

When I went through depression, suicidal thoughts and marital problems a year ago, Clare was always there for me.

An abiding memory is of last 31^st December with Gill, Clare and I, our four youngest kids and three friends sharing a New Year’s Eve meal.

Then the mutual parental chuckle after reprimanding two of our teenage children for secretly sharing a bottle of champagne together!

Clare and I share much more than parenting: our love of large open spaces, gardening, green issues, social justice, adventure, beer, food and the wilds of Scotland!

We can – and often do – sit and chat for hours about how we can put right all the world’s ills. Before laughing at how serious we become.

Thank you Clare for being a very special person in my life and being such a wonderful friend.

 

Words for Friends #6

This is part of a new series of blogs entitled Words for Friends, in which I will try to acknowledge some people in my life for whom words of thanks are not nearly enough.

These living epitaphs to my true and lovely friends are published in a random order as fancy takes me.

#6 Craig

Little did I know back in 2007, when I took a chance on a man who had only ever taken holiday snaps to be my new newspaper photographer, that he would turn out to be the best snapper I had ever worked with.

He also turned out to be a best friend, and the person I chose to be the photographer at my wedding to Gill.

And so it is with Craig – a friend who is always there and who always comes through when the chips are down.

A friend who drove through eight foot snow drifts to deliver a camping gas stove to our home in the Welsh hills, when we were marooned without electricity or heating for five days in the spring of 2013.

A friend who drove a 60 mile round trip just to help me carry an old washing machine to the local amenity site.

A friend who always has my back and the first man I would turn to in times of trouble.

A man in a million… and my friend.

Words for Friends #2

This is part of a new series of blogs entitled Words for Friends, in which I will try to acknowledge some people in my life for whom words of thanks are not nearly enough.

These living epitaphs to my true and lovely friends are published in a random order as fancy takes me.

 #2 Helen

I first met Helen at a Fairport Convention gig nine years ago. She was the bass guitarist in their three piece support act.

At the interval in the music hall lobby, she cheerfully agreed to sign my copy of her band’s first album… and so began a precious friendship.

Her mass of multi-coloured dreadlocks, overt body piercings and a meadow of tattoos gave the first impression of shock and awe. She was a punk, a hippy, a rebel and an amazing bass guitarist.

She was also beautiful, and oozed genuine warmth.

I soon began overseeing the PR for her band and within no time a deep friendship and even deeper love developed. But this was no romance in any sexual sense. Helen was/is gay and together many times we would talk all night and share our emotional rescue – usually over a bottle of gin, which was invariably finished in time for breakfast.

Almost four years ago she was the witness at my wedding to Gill, and a year later was the first person Gill telephoned for help when I suffered a nervous breakdown.

Without Helen my life would be incomplete. The best and most loyal friend I could ever wish for.

H Bomb

Come and sit here, you said

With that sparkle in your smile

Listen to the music we play

And linger for a while

H Bomb, H Bomb

You fell from heaven

And gave me new clear vision

With a love that lasts forever

Burning deep in our soul fission

You played those notes real deep

With precision and chords so blue

You held the bass line down

To elicit your choral hue

H Bomb, H Bomb

You fell from heaven

And gave me new clear vision

With a love that lasts forever

Burning deep in our soul fission

Your hair it held no dread for me

As it danced in pink and green

Your dark eyes they pierce me still

To the place that is unseen

H Bomb, H Bomb

You fell from heaven

And gave me new clear vision

With a love that lasts forever

Burning deep in our soul fission

You sipped deep at mother’s ruin

And sang songs into the night

We burned the evening oil

And laughed together until light

H Bomb, H Bomb

You fell from heaven

And gave me new clear vision

With a love that lasts forever

Burning deep in our soul fission

You stood in grey beside me

On that fateful wedding day

You held my hand so tightly

And made my heart feel gay

H Bomb, H Bomb

You fell from heaven

And gave me new clear vision

With a love that lasts forever

Burning deep in our soul fission

Oh Helen you are my soul mate

Your love it makes me glad

I’ll always be here for you

The daughter I never had

H Bomb, H Bomb

You fell from heaven

And gave me new clear vision

With a love that lasts forever

Burning deep in our soul fission