For Audrey

Thank you all for your concern and kind words to me yesterday for the loss of my friend who was knocked off her bicycle on Tuesday evening.

Whatever grief I might feel, it can be nothing to that of her family who have lost someone so special in the blink of an eye, and through no fault of her own.

And so, these sunflowers are for Audrey, whose life support was turned off yesterday, but who was generous to the last in donating organs to at least 3 recipients.

Of all the flowers, these big, bright cheery blooms remind me of her endless good humour and optimistic personality. I have never ever heard her complain once about anything be it a cycling injury, an ailment or some adverse event.

She was multi talented; a wonderful provider, carer and attentive friend to all who knew her in the different segments of her life.

As well as cycling, she was an embroiderer, a walker, a Scottish country dancer, a gardener, a prolific jam maker, a baker, a mainstay of her church, a caring mother and a marvellous granny.
I can certainly vouch for her scones, spread with newly made jam, which were always on tap for hungry cyclists breaking their journey home from the coast.

Her cycling was legendary- a 100 hundred miles a week up until her replacement hop at the beginning of the year and then she was building up again with never a complaint about any discomfort. As some one reportedly said 'Audrey has one set of lungs for climbing hills, and another set for talking and singing while she does so.

She was a lesson to us all in seeing the good side in people and the bright side of things, and she will be hugely missed by everyone.

But life for the rest of us has to go on, and I am looking forward to having a blether with daughter # 1 and Magpie this afternoon before going to see 'Liberace : Live from Heaven' at the Fringe this evening