Katherine was one of my dearest friends. She was the kindest, most selfless person I knew. She always meant well for everyone and did so much to help others. Katherine was lots of fun too and she always saw the positive and funny side to things.
I first became friends with Katherine in Bournemouth, when our friend Catherine invited us both the summer after we had finished our GCSEs. I did at the time feel really awkward about going to Bournemouth because I didn’t know Katherine, and I was worried I would feel left out. I went anyway, with a reading book to accompany me as a backup.But, when we got to Bournemouth, it got even more awkward because Katherine and I were shown to our room: we were going to be sharing. At the time, I really couldn’t have thought of anything worse than sharing a room with someone I didn’t know. But, in fact, we jelled really quickly. And on our first night, we couldn’t stop talking and laughing, to the point that Catherine had to shout to us from her room to tell us to be quiet and go to sleep. We still carried on talking anyway.I didn’t touch my reading book at all during our trip there. I learnt later on into our friendship that Katherine had alsobrought a reading book with her as a backup, as she was also worried she would feel left out. I think the fact that we became such good friends so quickly, was mostly due to Katherine’s ability to make other people feel at ease. I didn’tfeel uncomfortable with her. I was able to be my complete self with Katherine from the very beginning. I’m so pleased that the both us went to Bournemouth, even with our initial fear of feeling left out. I’m not sure if we otherwise would have had a chance at becoming good friends.
After Bournemouth, a lot of our friendship consisted of us drinking lots of tea and talking about absolutely everything. Katherine used to be quite particular about how her tea was made. As soon as the kettle had boiled, you had to pour the water into the mug. If you didn’t, you had to re-boil the kettle with fresh water. Usually, we were too busy talking or giving each other a big hug whilst we waited for the kettle, so we didn’t realise when the kettle had actually finished boiling. We had to re-boil the kettle many times.
Another time when both Katherine’s and I went to Bournemouth, we each wrote a bucket list. One of the things on our bucket list was to watch the sunrise on the beach. Katherine said we should make it happen the next morning. And so we did – having had just a few hours’ sleep, we woke up early the next morning and cycled to a point where we would be able to watch the sunrise. Katherine always made the most of time. If it wasn’t for Katherine being so assertive and determined to make things happen, that would probably still be something left untouched on my bucket list.
I used to love our catch ups with Catherine Hale too. We call ourselves the Triangle. Once I had moved house, we even lived in a Triangle shape too, all within a 5 minute walk of each other. We could always talk about everything and I never felt judged for anything I said. And I find it very hard to open up to people, but I could really open up to Katherine. We used to give each other lots of advice, be there for each other when we needed a cry, we had lots of laughs together. Sometimes, even when I didn’t get the joke, I still used to laugh because Katherine’s laugh was so infectious.
We used to do lots of silly things together too like draw faces on our chins and talk to each other upside down. We once painted little minions onto our nails too. We also did our hair up in funny styles, then danced and sang songs. We were very silly once when we almost caught fire to the kitchen in Bournemouth, whilst trying to cook pasta.
There are so many good memories I have of Katherine. But also so many more memories that were yet to be made. I keep thinking of things we were yet to do together. I also keep thinking of whenever both of the Katherine’s and I saw three old ladies together, and we said they would be us one day. I really did believe that the three of us would be old ladies one day, still laughing together at the same sorts of silly jokes and getting together for tea and a catch up. But I don’t want to focus on what could have been, because I am so grateful that I was lucky enough to have Katherine in my life and for us to be such good friends. And I am grateful to you, Catherine Hale, for inviting us both to Bournemouth because that opened up the start of the best friendship I’ve ever had. And I know Katherine isn’t with us anymore, but I will always think of us as a Triangle.
I will miss Katherine. I will miss Katherine’s warm hugs. She gave the best hugs. I will miss our Triangle times. I will miss hearing Katherine’s laugh and seeing her smile. I will misslistening to her stories. I will really, really miss Katherine.
But, I’m grateful for all of the memories I have of our time together. I will always have such a big space for Katherine in my heart. Katherine, you will always be in my thoughts and heart. I love you so much xxxxxxxxx