"Every Man's Death Diminishes Me...

.....For I am involved with Mankind" by John Donne

For Mr C.
They say that if you've got children or dogs you'll make friends easily. I can vouch for that; some of my closest friends now are those I met at the school gates and having dogs has had the bonus of introducing me to a whole bunch of other people whom I wouldn't normally have met. The interesting point about mixing with my dog walker friends is that while it's too tempting to talk progeny with other parent friends, believe me, no one's going to talk dog all evening.

One of the regular bunch a retired man well into his seventies was there in the woods every morning without fail. He had a bad heart and a bad hip but would roll on up the hill to the spot in the photo and sit on those rocks there catching his breath before starting down again. We chatted about dogs, about the weather, about life and, of course, politics. He died at the weekend following heart surgery. The strangest thing was that just before he went into hospital on our last walk together he told me his life.... we'd never talked about personal stuff..but now that I think about it I possibly spent more time talking to him over the last seven years than most of my friends.
I shall miss him.