14/07/2026
My friend passed away last year on 1st July, but it wouldn’t be until a week later that I heard the news.
It’s crazy that I only had 4 years of friendship with her, as it felt like we had known each other much longer. We become close friends fast and it truly felt like we were often on the same wavelength - I felt like she really “got” me. We could text about anything, from the mundane to the silly to the deeply meaningful. Sometimes I still reach for my phone to text her about something random, only to realize she can’t answer.
I’ve had dreams where she’s still alive and we still text and we still go see theatre shows together. Dreams where she says “Surprise! Bet I had you fooled!” But I always wake up to find that she is well and truly gone.
This is a nail account, but I hope you’ll forgive me going slightly off topic. But we did meet through nail polish and she visited me at my house to help me organize my polish collection into my new ALEX drawers (which she helpfully picked up from her local IKEA). We also met in London a few times to go to plays and things, but not enough. Never enough.
She was someone special and I hope she knew how special she was to me.
I’m glad I met you, Helen.
