In memory of June

It's been one of those weeks.  One of those up and down weeks where days seem irrelevant.  Life goes on, the bustle of people scurrying to work filters up from the street down below.  The irate sound of car horns as people imagine it will get them to their destination faster. Guests arrive, guests depart, smiles, small talk, the swallows screech and swoop outside the windows.  Every morning the roofers arrive just as I depart for the boulangerie on my bike.  We laugh and smile, a sort of shared resignation that we all have long hot days ahead of us. When I come back there's a game whether I can cycle fast through the large front door before they try and grab the baguette.  We make an awful lot of noise, we're laughing you see, shows we are all alive.  At midday I take them a bucket of ice and tell them they should be applying sun tan lotion.  It's the small exchanges on an everyday basis that make such a difference in life.  Why be cruel when you can be kind ? why frown when you can smile ? why complain when a compliment is so much more positive ? Three simple actions that cost nothing.

I lost my dear friend this week. People die, it's part of life.  But it's at the oddest moments when I miss her most.  It's when I sit down after doing the guests breakfast's and switch on skype, there's no flippant comment appears on the screen and yet I can see our whole history of everyday conversations.  And then suddenly nothing. And my everyday worries seem banal, the people I worried about seem undeserving of my time. It suddenly hit me, be selective of your friends and treasure those who care for you in case one day you regret wasting your time on those who deserve nothing from you.

June and I laughed, we cried, we saw each other through the good times and the not so good times.  We held each other tightly and hugged when we were happy or sad.  We drank champagne on a deserted beach overlooking the Isle of Sky and we danced to loud music and watched the stars appear and twinkle in the inky blue sky. June wore outrageously short skirts and flirted for England, you couldn't fail to love her.

June lost her courageous battle to cancer.  My daughter Tallulah is running this weekend to raise funds for this hideous disease.  Please support her if you can by donating through this link https://www.justgiving.com/tallulahbarnett

Loyal, supportive, non judgemental friends are rare in life.

I miss June.