“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you… I could walk through my garden forever.”
~ Alfred Tennyson
Yesterday was July 4. It’s our niece’s birthday. It was our first dog Charlie’s birthday, Charlie who is now Harry. And it was Kate’s birthday.
Kate was such a dear friend. I met her hanging over the fence at my Auntie Doff’s when I was a kid – both of us in primary school. I was a goody-two-shoes. Kate was a foster child, a tough kid and ‘bad girl’ who secretly had a heart of gold, a wicked sense of humour and a shared love of books. She became my penpal at a time when people used to write letters to stay in touch and we became entwined in each other’s lives, using each other like a ‘Dear Diary’ and witnessing each other’s trials, tribulations and wobbly successes.
She died in 2010 and yesterday, July 4, she would have been 49 years old.
Kate was a crap cook, and a lover of junk food, a killer musician, circus and aerial artist and street performer. She was famous for her cupcake kebabs and Horses Doovers Towers – her only two and best dishes!
It’s been nearly ten years since she passed. Still, sometimes I find myself thinking that I’ll call Kate or send her some stupid Facebook thing I know she’d love. Sometimes the grief I feel and the still-missing-her is ferocious. I never knew it could continue to take my breath away at unexpected moments after all this time.
My friend Carls (none other than THE Carly-Jay Metcalfe) was a mate of Kate’s too and we always remember Kate on her birthday, message each other and make sure to eat cake. Kate would have been all for that. She was a girl who loved life and lived it hard.
The older I get the more my heart is marked by those strange unhealable wounds that are created when a loved one has left this life. I’m glad for those wounds, and for my dinged-up battered heart. I feel these departed loved ones around me still and they live on inside me. I still talk to them. I still think about them. I still hold them close.
And sometimes, just sometimes, I miss them so much I can hardly breathe.
That’s okay. That’s just what love does to you.
Hugs and love, Nicole xx
Dearest Nicole,
Its always like that about my grandfather. He s around alright, I guess i just miss his physical presence in our lives and not being able to interact with him. To have felt that love the most when they have gone, that breaks you up inside.
Lots of love and hugs,
I totally get it. I feel the same pain sometimes. Ot hurts but I’m happy to have had these people in my life
Thank You Nicole for honouring your friend with this touching message. For me – a much needed message after hearing from my dearest Soul-Sister last night, that her cancer has returned. She’s devastated! I’m sad, angry and struggling!
Your message delivers love, hope and a whole lot more tears but also such wisdom and insight. I would rather have these wounds ….
With love always
xx
Your Kate must have been a one in a million. I can only imagine as foster child with all the insecurities and background to be fostered that she would have loved you even more.
With a bond like that you know that she is always close to you.
Xxx