We went travelling in Australia for the summer and, while we were there, a month to the date today, in fact, our friend Leigh passed away. Even though I was devastated, I don’t think it really hit me until I came home to Ireland.

I met Leigh by chance at a meeting in Dublin in 2014. We knew each other by reputation, and a friendship developed and blossomed over the years. Leigh reminded me of my mum so much, not because she was older(!!) but because she was from Newry and had a way about her that I ascribe to so many of my Northern Irish relatives: she had a wicked sense of humour; she said it as it was; and she was well accustomed to fighting for what she believed in. I tried scrolling back through our masses of Facebook conversations, to see when we first started messaging each other. After an hour, I was only as far back as 2018. Reams and reams of exchanged words of encouragement, anger, hope and fear.

Leigh was a religious reader of this blog and rarely neglected to leave an encouraging comment whenever I shared the latest instalment. During lockdown in 2020, she took up painting and sent me a canvas of two brown and white puppies, which I will treasure forever.

This hackneyed effort of a poem below won’t do Leigh any justice, but I can only hope she knew how much her friendship meant to me.

My condolences to Eugene, Karl and Aisling. You guys were her everything; that I know for sure xx

My grief-scarred heart 
Oozes gunge 
While I try to lend words
To articulate the loss
Of a headstrong woman,
Mother,
Wife,
Activist,
Friend.
Many times she wrapped me
Close to her heart
With her shortened arms
and endless patience,
Venturing across divides
Of land, time and attitudes,
Tough, but never hard,
Fearless, but not unfeeling.
The lullaby of her Newry accent
Luring those who tried to take advantage 
Into the searing, fiery ball
Of her passion for justice.
No longer will my phone ping
With requests to read presentations,
Or maybe just for a listening ear,
To ease her soul, though just for a moment.
And as long as I live, I will never forget
The woman who travelled to Texas and Pallaskenry,
Chasing dreams that were almost denied,
Crying tears she never should have cried,
To find the right man to stay by her side.
Nerves of steel, and a marshmallow heart
Ever present, yet too far apart. Xxx