Goodbye to my very dear friend-so many crazy memories...it has been unbelievably hard to put proverbial pen to paper...even for me, a so called wordsmith for whom words come so very easy ..but not this time.Your death may have been expected, prepared for(not least by you..)...you very definitely did it 'your way' in true Sarah style...but the shock that you are just not here has left a gaping hole that hurts real bad.
So you stand in front of me with your wonky smile and those eyes that cut through the crap and I weep....What to say..except you may have gone the way you planned but far far too soon.So dear Sarah, what have you given me? given us all?This is personal...you and I go back a very long time.I still remember you telling me very authoritatively back in 2006 that as I was still a 'pretend' acting director I was not entitled to attend the first national Childrens Services Conference -who was this scary tough woman to stop me in my tracks?...( not a 'No' I took from many before or since!).
And so it began..as others have said...you did it all..And you were so very much more than the woman who could outlast us all into the early hours and then emerge sharp , smart and awake at 7.30am...you had a complexity and a depth I suspect you shared with just a few.So very many high points...I won't forget walking through Brixton in 2010 with you nagging me on the phone to put myself forward as ADCS Vice... President...We all talk of the honour and privilege of becoming President...for most of us it will have been a Career high point..in no small measure down to you Sarah.Your talent of capturing each of our unique style and contribution and fashioning it into something great and enduring was second to none.All of us have you to thank for the wisdom;the words and the support that made that role , which for you and for the sector, so pivotal in terms of its impact then, now and for the forseeable future.All of our successes..us Past Presidents-owe those special moments to you..you who always stayed in the background.The limelight may have been ours...but the hard graft and the enduring impact was down to you.
Sarah, you became a close friend and confidante..we shared both secrets, laughs and pain a plenty.This will always be a privilege and I feel that loss so keenly.
I, like others, have had to become used to saying goodbye to too many dear friends in the recent past.Yes I know it was the life lived that mattered most and not the one lost.But being you..at no point did you succumb to that vile disease...you just carried on; living; laughing;sharing and crying with us all till the end..only you could do that.So yes, no doubt I will raise many glasses in the weeks to come; but more than that I will remember those words...Thank you.
Goodbye to my very dear friend-so many crazy memories...it has been unbelievably hard to put proverbial pen to paper...even for me, a so called wordsmith for whom words come so very easy ..but not this time.Your death may have been expected, prepared for(not least by you..)...you very definitely did it 'your way' in true Sarah style...but the shock that you are just not here has left a gaping hole that hurts real bad.
So you stand in front of me with your wonky smile and those eyes that cut through the crap and I weep....What to say..except you may have gone the way you planned but far far too soon.So dear Sarah, what have you given me? given us all?This is personal...you and I go back a very long time.I still remember you telling me very authoritatively back in 2006 that as I was still a 'pretend' acting director I was not entitled to attend the first national Childrens Services Conference -who was this scary tough woman to stop me in my tracks?...( not a 'No' I took from many before or since!).
And so it began..as others have said...you did it all..And you were so very much more than the woman who could outlast us all into the early hours and then emerge sharp , smart and awake at 7.30am...you had a complexity and a depth I suspect you shared with just a few.So very many high points...I won't forget walking through Brixton in 2010 with you nagging me on the phone to put myself forward as ADCS Vice... President...We all talk of the honour and privilege of becoming President...for most of us it will have been a Career high point..in no small measure down to you Sarah.Your talent of capturing each of our unique style and contribution and fashioning it into something great and enduring was second to none.All of us have you to thank for the wisdom;the words and the support that made that role , which for you and for the sector, so pivotal in terms of its impact then, now and for the forseeable future.All of our successes..us Past Presidents-owe those special moments to you..you who always stayed in the background.The limelight may have been ours...but the hard graft and the enduring impact was down to you.
Sarah, you became a close friend and confidante..we shared both secrets, laughs and pain a plenty.This will always be a privilege and I feel that loss so keenly.
I, like others, have had to become used to saying goodbye to too many dear friends in the recent past.Yes I know it was the life lived that mattered most and not the one lost.But being you..at no point did you succumb to that vile disease...you just carried on; living; laughing;sharing and crying with us all till the end..only you could do that.So yes, no doubt I will raise many glasses in the weeks to come; but more than that I will remember those words...Thank you.