#Kateday25

It would have been Kate’s 64th birthday on 4 July 2025, had her life not ended in the Princess Alice Hospice on 13 July 2017, shortly after her 56th and final birthday. Every year we make two memorial pilgrimages to the place where we scattered her ashes, on her birthday and on Boxing Day. And … Continue reading #Kateday25 →

#Kateday24

On 4 July 2024 there is a General Election here in the UK. It would also have been Kate’s 63rd birthday, had she not succumbed to breast cancer on 13 July 2017, shortly after completing her 56th year. As is now customary, we shall walk to the place where her ashes were scattered, celebrate her … Continue reading #Kateday24 →

#Kateday23

As the sixth anniversary of Kate's death approaches - only just preceded by her 62nd Birthday on 4 July - I find myself reflecting once more on how different life would be had she lived. Would we have retired together, Devonwards, as we had vaguely planned, and would our relationship have blossomed in that new … Continue reading #Kateday23 →

#Kateday22

Monday 4 July 2022 would have been Kate’s 61st Birthday. And Wednesday 13 July 2022 will be the fifth anniversary of her untimely death from breast cancer, at the Princess Alice Hospice, Esher, in the summer of 2017. As the years pass by, increasingly I prefer to commemorate and celebrate her birthday, allowing her death … Continue reading #Kateday22 →

#Kateday2018

. When Kate died in July 2017 I discussed with some of her closest friends and relatives the idea of meeting annually on her birthday to remember her. I thought this would be a fitting tribute to someone whose commitment to friendship and family was extraordinary – whose greatest gift was her immense capacity for … Continue reading #Kateday2018 →

From Kate’s funeral service

This was my contribution to Kate's funeral service, which took place at Kingston Cemetery and Crematorium on 31 July 2017: . I first met Kate at university in October 1979. She was 18; I was 20. We each had lots of red hair. We drank beer, went to many gigs together and became firm friends. … Continue reading From Kate’s funeral service →