Thank you for …
The spotty dog dance
Driving us over Fairwood Common in the Spar Delivery Van, turning the lights out and doing psycho screaming
For bringing Ivor in to our lives
Delivering a 12 year old me home after the school rock opera, Papa Moses, wrap party. I was drunk, and you propped me up by the front door, by pinning my forehead to the wall, until Mammie answered it.
Showing me Pere Laichaise cemetery, when you were living in Paris. We got accosted by some stoners by Jim Morrison’s grave who marvelled at how pale I was and that I must be Dead Already.
The wonderful paintings
Dressing up the art college skeleton as Diana Ross
Teaching me that having a really cold fridge was a fine thing.
Coining the phrase Celtic lank
Introducing me to my favourite film: Orphée
Introducing me to my 2nd favourite film: Wings of Desire
Telling tales of the Exeter goths who lived by the light of an Insectoflash
For being Lloydie Loo, Lloyd Loom, Jones the Spar’s boy, my oldest friend, my first Gay Boyfriend, moon-faced Lloyd, Straight-backed Lloyd.
The story of when the vets used to call you in to the appointment by using your pets’ names - Twinkle and Minnie then minced forward carrying the cats
For coming around from being unhappy with your veneers by standing in front of the mirror doing George Formby impressions
For the all places we knocked around in - south Wales, London, Paris, Oxford and Exeter.
For your lovely mam, and her mam, and their matching pinnies and faint whiff of fresh bleach.
For being at my 18th birthday party and my 60th - when I thought of this, I had this feeling of time slipping and suddenly looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. We’d been caught in a drift towards the last part of our lives. It had been happening a while, but had sped up without us noticing… and now the current is strong. It’s so tragic it swept you away so unexpectedly.
For being in my life 48 years … It’s so terrible that you had to leave so soon
Patsy
29/03/2024
