Farewell Andrée

Bear with me Blipmates, I'm upset...

“I hadn’t heard from you for a while and asked a mutual acquaintance if you’d moved. When she told me that you’d collapsed in the snow a couple of years ago and you’d died after two days in a coma, my heart was so saddened.

We met at the American clinical pharmacy conference in Atlanta some sixteen years ago, and a small group of us had a great time. You and I became really good friends; similar humour, similar outlook.

You became Auntie Andrée, I was Daddy Rob. We’d randomly found ourselves in Martin Luther King’s former chapel and although you were a couple of years older than me, the old lady guide thought I was your dad...

As well as the professional stuff, we packed loads in. On the cable car at Stone Mountain on a free day, your Irish vowels were understood by the locals – they wondered if I was Swedish! Remember when we came down the mountain and I bought a bag of the local delicacy – boiled peanuts? Disgusting! You found it highly amusing that I liked shopping for clothes and stuff in the malls as much as you…

We burnt the midnight oil in the bar most nights as well – “life’s too short to waste on too much sleep” - and at my behest you too, became friends with Jim Beam. We exchanged stories about our lives, loves and dreams.

I contacted Emory University Hospital through a delegate at the conference and set up a visit for us. I spent time in the liver transplant clinic and you looked round the rest of the hospital. You didn’t really believe me at lunchtime when I told you I’d set up a ride in a “big rig” owned by Clyde, a transplant patient I’d met in clinic. But you did when he met us at the out of town mall parking lot in a truck the size of a house!

We remained firm friends and met up a few times when I was over in Ireland. We got into the jokey habit of catching up on the phone at least once a year, at Winter Solstice. I’ll miss that.

Remember when we arranged to meet in the Crown Liquor Saloon in Belfast? You had to drag me out of another pub we went in when I couldn’t stop laughing at the table soccer machine – the two teams? Protestants versus Catholics! Great times, good craic. Some friendships are meant live on forever.

We’d both been through “challenging” times professionally. I wondered about setting up as a cycle courier & pharmacy business – delivering medicines and educating patients at the same time. You wanted to set up a flower arranging business… So, this image is for you.

Farewell Andrée.”