Goodbye Susie

I found out today that someone I know died on Thursday.

A childminder I saw every day, twice a day sometimes.  I don't think we could class each other as friends but we were friendly, we always said hello and had a chat.  She was a very colourful character, full of life and very eccentric (despite Mr DOMADQ claiming that you have to be rich to be eccentric otherwise you are, according to him, just crazy).

I often would see her rushing to drop off or pick up invariably late for the school run, in her slippers, PJs, sparkly tights or one of the last times I saw her she appeared to be wearing the back half of a pantomime cow.  She was like an eternal hippy, I could imagine her dancing barefoot with flowers in her hair (in actual fact she did come to school one day with flowers in her hair).  Always friendly the children in her care seemed to truly love her and she them.

The last few times I saw her she looked unwell, very jaundice and painfully thin.  I didn't know her well enough to ask if anything was up, I wish I had spoken to her.

I heard this week she had collapsed and was in intensive care and I was so shocked.   I walked past her house earlier today and saw the details for her funeral in the window.

I feel so sad and at the same time I feel like it isn't my place to be grieving as I didn't really know her.  But this lady was vivacious and so full of fun.  She had several children, the youngest one still at Junior school.  She was 52, that is the same age my dad was when he died.

It seems so unfair.  I had my dad for nearly 25 years and that was hard enough, the thought of a younger family going through the same thing is making me weep.