Song for a friend

I have a new friend who I met via this blog. Her elder brother had a terrible motorbike accident nearly two weeks ago and is in a coma with every bone in his body broken. I’m thinking of Caz and how she is coping with this devastating news on the same week that I’m remembering my very special friend Tina Stone who died from ovarian cancer on the 15th April 1993 when she was just a week away from her 26th birthday. Had she lived it would have been her 40th birthday in a couple of weeks.

I loved Tina so much,she was a hugely inspirational person –so wise,so individual,so caring,so jolly,so insightful,so cool,so energetic,so offbeat,so beautiful. In the short time I lived with her I learnt so much about the world. I will always miss her more than I can describe. I have some really tremendous friends but she was uber tremend.

The day we met in the staff room of the restaurant we had both come to work in we said that we both knew each other from somewhere,we were sure of it,we never did work out where we had come across one another before –maybe the Moon Club,maybe another dark dingy Bristolian nightclub. We’ll never know. Irrelevant now. I was lucky that I ever knew her and that we packed so many good times into such a short period.

The lyrics from the following sad songs have been going round my head for the past week. The sentiment from the Duran Duran song keeps me going. There are always bad,sad things happening in the world. None of us have any reason to expect none of it will happen to us or our families. Some people,like Caz,do seem to get dealt an unfair amount. They always tell children that life isn’t fair which is true,but it’s still an incredible agony to live through when bad things happen to yourself those you love.

Belong (R.E.M. –Out of Time)
Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She got up from the kitchen table
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio
Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea,sea
Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea
She began to breathe
To breathe at the thought of such freedom
Stood and whispered to her child,belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm,calm;belong
Stood and whispered to her child,belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm,calm;belongThese barricades can only hold for so long
Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She took the child held tight
Opened the window
A breath,this song,how long
And knew,knew;belong

Ordinary World,(Duran Duran –The Wedding Album)
Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly.
I turned on the lights,the TV and the radio
Still I can’t escape the ghost of you
What has happened to it all?
Crazy,some’d say,
Where is the life that I recognize?
Gone away…Chorus:
But I won’t cry for yesterday,there’s an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way,to the ordinary world…
I will learn to survive Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say
“Pride will tear us both apart”
Well now pride’s gone out the window cross the rooftops,run away,
Left me in the vacuum of my heart.
What is happening to me?
Crazy,some’d say,
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away…Chorus:
But I won’t cry for yesterday,there’s an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way,to the ordinary world…
I will learn to survive
Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed
Here today,forgot tomorrow
Here besides the news of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk