Once upon a time we were just little girla who would strap on our clunky over trainer roller skate endlessly going up and down the concrete paths which were between the houses of our neighbours. You showed me how to angle my feet to perform a smooth turn at each end, a progression from just using the brick wall to stop myself. . As an adult I think about how much noise this must have caused, yet not one of those nextdoor neighbours ever complained & we were never asked to stop or go elsewhere (& it really was nonstop for hours, daily!) We later progressed to skating the pavement at the front with its large grassed triangle, which was helpfully slashed in half midway with a cut through tarmac pathway. This new arena gave us slopes & much longer stretches to skate and the occasional scraped knee too. I’ve black & white photos of us somewhere - we were the bees knees! Creeping down your immaculately kept back garden as your dad rested for a cuppa on your swing seat, giggling as we went behind him to see the exposed crevice of his derrière as he sat there. A glass tank, where you’d got a caterpillar 🐛 & were feeding & watching its natural lifespan play out…I was in awe of your parents, Jean & Pete who were so endlessly attentive & loving to their golden haired little girl. I was madly envious of the fact that you weee allowed to put up posters - Leif Garret & Gary Glitter (who knew then what he would become!) You showed me how to make cardboard formers to make pom-poms, and we would wind many a gaudy woollen toy for your pure white kitten, who you named Snowy. In a pet free home, how lucky you were to have a kitten of your own! It wasn’t all rosey. I do remember we would squabble & fall out at times, though what about I have no idea. I threw a stone which hit and marked your arm & I got in so much trouble! It never lasted & hearing you skating the pathway between the houses, I’d ask to go to yours, just a few doors away & we soon made up,

That date in March will roll sound again in a few weeks time… The year it will be 14 long years since you left this life.. Im thinking back to us at 14 years old… by then we were no longer living 5 doors apart as my mum & dad had separated 2 years prior and I had gone to live in Sparsholt, a place that separately formed such a strong background to so much of our teen lives with people & place involved in our lives then overlapping, twisting & melding together . In these years we were becoming young women, well removed from the childish poster boy passions ( oh how you and I once raved over Leif Garret) We were now experiencing passions that were more grown up in nature, golly by now we were falling in love with people not pop stars! Even now, when you’ve been gone for so long & my life has altered tumultuously time and time again, and I’m in a location unconnected to anything I shared with you, that you can still be so present in my world and your influence so far reaching. In 1977 aged 11 we left Winnall School & in that September we went on to attend at Westgate. Golly Karen, this year it is 40 years since we all left there! That small group of girls (& boys) graduating to Westgate now collided with new boys and girls with whom great friendships came to be formed. Among others, we now met a young Suzy Kearney and you formed a strong, deep and lasting friendship which was unlike ours that had been born originally surely largely due to the proximity in which our homes happened to be. Now the new friendships we made could be , to an extent anyway, be driven by ourselves. For a time you were extremely close friends with Mandy Chant too, but your friendship with Suzy went on to be enduring and extremely important- to you both. Closer than sisters even, you supported one another through so much, carrying each others secrets , making lasting pacts and promises which went on to be honoured. How funny that you each promised as chief bridesmaids to each other that you’d purposefully wear a worse, illfitting dress so that the bride would never be upstaged by her delectable bridesmaid!!! Though you never married Karen, you honoured that promise I believe at Suzy’s wedding to her Kevin. At age 12 ½ I ended up living in Sparsholt, , my mum & dad having separated. Now each with new friendships formed which were taking our time, our childhood links were consigned, at least for now, to the past, and now we were no longer just doors apart. In Sparsholt I’d already made new friendships too - indeed some of these new friendships overlapped and entwined with your own. Over the years, your friendships here deepened however by age 15 I’d fled, abandoned school and the life I’d had up until then. Much much later, I’d become a mother and was living miles away, but on a visit back to the area, in Stockbridge I bumped into you one day finding you working as a barmaid in a pub I’d gone into. Your smile was huge and you grabbed your purse to show me the old black an white photo you carried of us as little girls. I was so deeply touched by this , that you’d held the memories of us so close, of such importance. So, I’d like to think, in fact I know, that you’d be delighted that while this new thing called covid 19 has kept us physically apart, the great digital age has allowed Suzy & I to have formed what is an important friendship. We’ve been spending hours chatting snd exchaging messages as we seek to provide each other with a friendship. For us both that friendship has become something we are thankful for, recognising that it’s mutually meaningful & supportive. While as yet we have not physically seen one another, not since a visit we made together to your graveside several years ago, undoubtedly the importance we place upon our friendship feels really special & vital & life affirming because at its very core is the still beating heart of the love you gave us and that we have for you . It hurts that you are gone Karen, but you are very much not forgotten. I know I can speak for us both individually when I say that your loyal & unwavering friendship is and always will be held in high esteem. As friends we seek to honour you & thank you for gifting us this friendship as (yikes!) middle-aged empty-nested women. Miss & love you xxx

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