Twenty-four years..

Yesterday I started a new job and later that day at 7pm stood in the May evening sunshine in a country churchyard to mourn a schoolfriend who had passed away after a 20-year battle with cancer. We had been to primary school together, a small rural primary school so small that there were only six of us in 6th class. I hadn't seen my classmates for at least 20 years so naturally one's conversation turns to reminiscences, of piles of stones for goalposts, dancing to Abba, copying maths homework, comparing lunches and all the other memories that resurrect themselves to make you smile and shed a tear or two.

I hadn't seen Marc for 24 years, but I often heard about how he was doing and one time I heard of a story he had told of a time when he was in a bar in Trinity. He had spotted me in the throng and was going to wander over to say hello and buy me a pint, but when he turned around to look for me again I was gone. I never knew he was there until I heard that story, and standing in the churchyard last night, I wished I had seen him and had that pint.