My friend Jacquie

Tomorrow I go to a funeral of my friend Jacquie. It’s not something I was thinking would happen for a very long time.

I first met Jacquie around about 1982/3 we were both part of a school club. I had joined it basically because you could get your lunch before everyone else then spend the rest of the dinner time inside a classroom.

It was run as a Christian club by a biology teacher called Dorothy Appleby and I didn’t mind all the bible stuff in fact after a while I eventually made a commitment and became a Christian.

Jacquie too was all part of this and eventually we joined a church youth group at the age of 14. It was one of the best things I ever did as I met all my friends who now have been in my life for the best part of nearly 40 years.

Weekends away summer camps going to parties where we would be drunk and having a good laugh. Jacquie had a wicked sense of humour and I remember laughing a lot with her. Sometimes in the most inappropriate times and places.

Eventually the years passed friends moved away and got married. Others went off to university and settled in those places. We all had jobs and various careers. In late twenties earlier thirties Jacquie myself with other friends would rent a cottage and spend a week creating some lovely memories.

Each year despite ourselves having lived in different towns we would still keep each other update via social media and never miss sending a Christmas card to each other. Until 2021.

Jacquie was an ardent critic of those who wouldn’t follow covid guidelines and ignore medical advice. It was something I admired greatly in her as it was her passion to help those in need in times when they needed medical professionals to diagnose accidents or health issues via her training and extensive knowledge of Radiography.

To hear she had been hospitalised and eventually moved to ICU because of complications of the covid virus came as a great shock and we were all hoping and some praying that she would pull through and eventually regained her health.

Jacquie eventually lost this fight on January 10th 2022.

I will miss Jacquie so much. Happy to know I have called her a friend and laughed so much it hurt. Rest in Peace.