September

If you look back through the archives of this blog, I can guarantee you will find a lot of posts where I go on about how much I love the autumn.

I've always liked the season ever since I was a youngster and have always attributed the time of the year to coincide with a renaissance of sorts.

September brought the return to school in childhood and then there were other things in my later years that I have fond memories of.

Let's not forget, American football starts this month, too.

It seems I spend far too much of my time looking forward to this time of the year.

Unfortunately, this time of the year that now walks hand-in-hand with tragedy.

And I wasn't looking forward to writing this one.

It has now been a year since one of my friends passed away and I can never fully enjoy the turn of September thinking how much her loss must be felt right about now.

She and I first met in 1997. Easter Sunday if you want to be precise. I was just starting my first proper job but was training in a different store. It was on this day that I was introduced to her crazy - and I mean this term affectionately - ways right from page one.

In the mid-2000s she came to our store as a shift manager. She couldn't have arrived at a better time for me. Ir seemed that every friend/colleague I had there was leaving. I'm talking people I had spent years working with and they were all moving on. As I had other things going on in my life, it would have been foolish for me to leave until I sorted them out so I was stuck working with new people. Don't get me wrong - a lot of these colleagues were good people. I just missed the ones I had spent nearly a decade with.

It was just good to have someone I had known since my first day around.

I've just been sitting her staring at the screen for what seems like ages trying to write about a few memories and I cannot even find the right way to put them into this thing.

I wanted to write about the time in July 2006 when me and her went to the leaving party for the area manager. We were the only two people from our store to go (see what I mean about all the staff being new?). I hadn't been out partying for a very long time so it was a big thing for me to do. I am laughing now remembering how I had arranged to meet her after she finished work and how I had been out for a meal and spilt sauce all down my shirt and wanted to go back home to get a fresh one on. I rang her when I was on the bus home and she thought I was going to stand her up.

The thing that I recall the best, and should prove what kind of a friend she was, was how she was the only person to offer her support when I was going to be a witness in court. I appreciated her offering to come along but told her not to waste her time. I was right on that one. I spent all day sitting in the waiting room and the thing ended up being thrown out after my appearance in the stand.

But that was just the things I can recall of her. I would bet that tons upon tons of people can tell a story or two about how they remember her.

The most tragic part of this whole thing is those she left behind. Whenever I think about this dreadful situation I always spare a thought for her daughter. It's heartbreaking to think about it - even now.

I don't even know how to end this post today because I have gone into this with no idea where I was headed. Apologies if this is all over the place.