Absent friends

This wedding was supposed to happen last summer, but because my youngest sister died two weeks before the wedding date, K didn’t feel she could go ahead with it – not a surprise to anyone I don’t think. Then they went off to their honeymoon holiday as it wasn’t something they could get refunded, and got married in a hurry somewhere sunny.

I thoroughly understood and supported their action – K could never have the wedding she had planned with all her sisters there, so having a wedding where no one was there meant in a way there was no one missing. But other ppl wanted the party so this rebooked date continued anyway, and was a day I think most of us were at least partially dreading.

I wish that we had just had a toast to Katrin, raised a glass in her memory, paused a moment and then moved on. But we didn’t. And instead my father broke down in the middle of his speech and many of us around the room sobbed a little but without actually speaking her name.

I’ll speak it now – to Katrin, and any other absent friends. You are never far away from my mind, and the reading I did at your funeral still pretty much covers it for me.