Dog Collars and Rabbit Corpses

Laughter and Tears

Tonight has been a good night, yet at the same time it has been one of the worst nights ever. Today was Kathryn’s birthday she was fifteen. Only seems two minutes ago since I held her as a small baby in my arms and here she is grown up and making her parents proud. So we decided to have a small party for a few friends and Grandparents.

Kathryn had friends staying over last night so only invited one friend tonight. We invited Aunty Liz of course and as I said Grandma and Grandad. Also invited were Matt (who arrived slightly worse for drink having been watching England at Old Trafford all day) and Tom and Elissa.

The party was great I cannot remember having laughed as much as I did for such a very long time. So why the title? Well tonight was also the last time we would see Tom and Elissa for a very long time.

We have known for some time now that they were emigrating to Canada however, that does not make the reality any easier to take when the moment arrives. Both of them have shown us unconditional love at the time we needed it the most. They have helped us to laugh and cry, been there for us when we needed it and just helped us to live.

I will miss them both so much and especially Tom who has become such a very good friend who always knows the right words. My words tonight cannot express the loss I will feel over the coming months. Tom if you ever do read this I just want to say that I have seen in you so many times the God you do not believe in and experienced that God’s compassion in ways you will never know. Thank you for being my friend.

Friendship’s are so often those things you spend so much time trying to find, yet when they arrive they can also cause you so much pain. However, in the words of someone so much brighter than me “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”.

Hope you like the picture of Karen and my other two best friends.

posted by Stuart @ Friday, July 28, 2006