Death in the family

Something I've been meaning to write for a while...

Saturday 10th April 2010. A sad day for many people and one that caused me to shed a few tears (I feel we are familiar enough with each other now for me to share this detail).

It's difficult to describe the loss of something in your life that you take for granted, something that you always assume will be there during the good and the bad times. Something that has shared your life and touched it in more ways that you can possibly fathom.

People deal with loss in different ways. Some are quite open about it, some are more stoic. Some look to other places to try and fill the gap that this sudden departure has left in their lives, while others seek to withdraw and retreat. Others still choose a bitter path, ranting at the unfairness of it all and how things could/should have been different. Personally, I've chosen a path of resigned acceptance. All things considered, the writing was on the wall for a while and this knowledge didn't make it much easier to deal with but it did allow me to focus on what was important. The good times. The smiles. The laughter. The joy.

I wish that circumstances in my life had been a bit different - that I was able to spend a bit more time on the things that were important rather than assuming what once was there will always be there. Hindsight is a wonderful thing is it not? Even the greatest and noblest of institutions eventually fall, the passage of time is something that no-one should consider trivial.

It's been over a year now and the loss is still felt keenly amongst those of us that cared. I have so many fond memories that will forever live with me, each one bittersweet as there could have and should have been more. Time is apparently a great healer, but the repercussions of that day will still be felt amongst those of us blessed enough to have been touched by something greater than the petty miseries of day to day existence.

Rest in peace my friend. You were one of a kind, never to be equalled.

I'll miss you Gabe.

Shame on any of you who thought I was talking about Jilly's...