Sketch Friday 16th July 2021

#sketchfriday - A heartbreaking week. I went to Barcelona with my friend Jenny to see a very dear friend, Steve, who was nearing the end of his life. It was beautiful and sad all rolled into one. It was hard to leave. I came home and started quarentining. I did some skipping in the garden. My neibours rightly teased me. I tried to concentrate on work. I didn't find it easy. I thought alot about Steve and wife and young family and Mum and Sister and friends. And how he runs like a water mark through a huge part of my life. I lit a candle for him each day, even though I also knew this would probably have made him roll his eyes a bit. He wasn't a candle lighting kind of person. He was a very kind and lovely person though, so he would have gone with the candle lighting. But probably would have preferred I had had a whiskey in his honour. To be fair, I have been doing a fair bit of that too. Was. Would have. That all feels so wrong. But I must now speak of him in the past. Early this morning Steve died and I haven't been able to do much since, other than sit and sketch drawings of his cats. And drawings of bits of Barcelona. And drawings of my Jane in the garden. Because she took the day off. To just be here. Just gently being here. Sitting while I draw. Or while I started a job and then forgot what I had started. Then more. Drawings of Steve and his lovely wife Ceci and Jenny. And drawings of Maza and Chris who visited when we were with him too. How we all sat together drinking estrella damm beer and how it was magic but so hard, all at the same time. And then drawing flowers in the garden. A Hodge podge of things. A mush of stuff from the last week. Slammed together. Just doing something to keep my hands and heart busy for a while. And it feels impossible to imagine the world without him in it. He was simply ace. The older I get the fewer answers I have. All I know is that our lives are not a rehearsal. They don't start when X is perfect or Y is done. All we have is now. So grab your life like Steve grabbed his. Because he did his life beautifully. And tell the people you love that you love them as often as you can. And that's the news. Love to all X