A Thought on Friendship

We all have those friends. The ones who you don't see for months, or even years. The ones who leave you feeling energised and excited about life. The ones where you can spend hours chatting and never run out of things to say. 

Often, we don't see those friends as much as we would like. But, perhaps, that's part of the mechanisms of that particular friendship. These are the friends that did their growing up with you. They went through the whole "awkward teenage" stage with you and stuck around to make sure you were staying true to yourself. People who you feel comfortable enough admitting your quirks to and who will then tease you mercilessly for those aforementioned quirks whenever they appear. You are honest with each other even when you know that the other person may not necessarily approve, but they'll love you anyway. They've become your "stand-in" siblings and though not related by blood, you consider them family.

These friends know your secrets, they know the essence of who you are. You are incredibly different, yet remarkably similar. They challenge you, bring you down to earth and encourage you to spread your wings. They introduce you to new topics and ideas that you have never heard of before.

It's friends like these that keep life interesting and varied. Without them our lives would be incredibly one-dimensional and our outlooks would stagnate. But with them in our lives are enriched, made more colourful and we continually grow and learn from each other. 

I have quite a few friends like this and in the past month I have been lucky enough to see two of them. They were the inspiration for this particular post. However, this post is dedicated not only to these two friends, but to all my friends out there that I don't see or talk to very often but who enrich my life just by being a part of it. Xxx

Dinner with my non-blood related twin in Joburg a few weeks ago

Visiting my DDS (dearest darlingest sister) in Tzaneen over New Year

Remembering A Sister

So, the real reason I drove home, wasn't for my epic Friday night, but rather for a celebratory lunch on Saturday. This celebratory lunch was planned to remember and honour my sister and celebrate the fact that, if she was still alive, she would have been 21 on the 3rd of August.

Kerry, mum, dad and me. I think it was my first
day of "big school"

It was an extremely special lunch, with only close family members. We toasted to Kerry's birthday and short time that she spent with us, then spent a bit of time sharing memories that we had of her. Some of them included the following:

• She always used to be known and called Mrs Duck by my uncle, but one day she decided that she didn't want to be called Mrs Duck, and would rather be called Mrs Dolphin. To this day he still has a special dolphin picture in memory of her.
• We only learnt this much later, but apparently at school she used to have a little book where friends had to make an appointment with her to spend one of the tea breaks with her and they would have a "one-on-one" session. During the other tea time, she would play with the whole group.
• She loved putting on shows and when she was little, she did a rendition of "I'm a brave brave mouse" all by herself. Just because she could.
• I remember "flying" her above my head on my feet. We both started to laugh, but she was chewing gum... Moral of the story - don't fly your sister on your feet while she's chewing gum if you don't want it to end up in your mouth!
• She described the trees going up Old Howick Road as "wig trees" because the cars zooming past underneath them gave them that shape.
• She loved sitting with my dad in the kitchen, closing her eyes and smelling the different spices, guessing what each one was. She was hardly ever wrong.
• We used to collect snails so that they wouldn't destroy our garden, and instead of stomping on them like we were meant to, Kerry would take them behind our garage and set them free.
• She would often call up my grandpa to fix her little doll houses, or wooden things for her. Without my mum or anyone else knowing.
• She had incredibly heightened senses. Her eyes were sensitive to too much sun. Her ears were sensitive to too much noise. She had an incredible sense of smell. And she could name a song and artist after hearing only the first few notes. She used to do puzzles by looking at the shape of the piece, not the picture.
• She loved to dance, act, sing and be in the limelight. We think she would have pursued a career in something creative. I think she would have studied at Rhodes because she loved to party.

Kerry, me and cousin Taz at the beach

This lunch and time of remembering Kerry was incredibly special. By sharing our memories of her and watching a few short clips of home movies, we could honour and pay tribute to her life and acknowledge the impact that she had on each of our lives. Even though she's gone, she'll be forever engraved on each of our hearts and remembered fondly.