October's sad reflection

It's been a sad week. I wonder why this happens in October. It's a month of beauty. Of silent leaves breaking their fall onto damp pavements and stunning vistas in breathtaking splendour. It's probably the most elegant month of the year but, somehow, always the saddest. It was thirteen years ago, on another fabulous October day, that Zach had his first breakdown and we've probably had three other episodes during the same autumn season. So many times in October we've thought that we would not have Zach for long. That his tempting death was all-pervasive but, as he said to me yesterday, he fully intends to outlive us all.

Tragically, however, two weekends ago the seventeen year old daughter of friends of ours was killed in a truly terrible automobile accident along a stretch of desert road in Utah . Our friends were to have been visiting with her just two days later. Her body was flown back to the UK this week and yesterday was her funeral. You ask yourself why something this random, this so utterly unfair should happen but maybe in the greater scheme of things there are those souls who are not meant to for this earth. They reside temporarily with us and leave the most powerful memories. Full of energy, pushing the boundaries and blinding us with her personality, this child will not be forgotten.