There’s only one thing that I can think about at the moment. I went to my first funeral yesterday.
My good friend Oliver Padfield died from cancer when I was away on holiday. He was only a few weeks older than me. He leaves behind a wife and two small children.
Although the funeral was incredibly sad, it was also a fitting testament to what a great guy he was, and a number of the tributes that people made mentioned the fact that he was an incredibly infectious character (in fact, in retrospect, this post could have been written about Olly). His popularity was evidenced by the hundreds of people that travelled to the funeral.
I’m finding it tough to come to terms with the loss of a great friend. And it really felt like a huge event. A real wake-up call to me and others who knew him that life is all too short. And we all need to live our lives so that we’ll have no regrets about what we have, or haven’t done.
I’ll miss him dearly. But at the same time I’m incredibly proud and happy that I had the chance to know him over the last 12 or so years.
R.I.P. Oliver Padfield – One of the greatest people I’ll ever meet. 07.09.72 – 21.06.06
:-(