Departed Friends

Frank Walsh

On Saturday 29th May at 3.30pm a cloud passed over the sun here in Tenerife bearing our beloved Frank up and away from this mortal coil, looking for a suitable place on which to anchor, from where to look down, and watch over our comings and goings, - not lost - just gone before - as he would say.

The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual one of us something which is inexpressible, peculiar to us alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost, and that sounds so fitting for Frank.

Watching Frank's peaceful death reminded us of a falling star; one of the million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever. For those of us that loved him, frailties and all, we honour him. On some starry night when we see a twinkling star, we shall gaze on it and think of what Frank meant to us.

It was Franks' wish to be cremated, to have no service or cortege to speed him on his journey. He always said he would like, at a suitable time, a gathering of friends, dressed in happy colours to meet together to enjoy a glass or two and reminisce about the good times that we shared together, then to go forward determined to enjoy your lives as much as he loved his, and to spare a thought for others less fortunate than ourselves and offer help whenever possible.

As we have spent so many years living partially in Puerto and in the UK, we feel we would like to have two 'gatherings' When we have collected our thoughts together on the matter we shall let you know when and where we hope to be able meet up with you, which will be later in the year in Puerto as all the 'swallows' that we know return to warmer climes.

We shan't coin Frank's favourite phrase -" Never Break Cover"

For those who would like to make a donation in memory of Frank the following are some organisations whose work Frank supported and believed in: http://www.kiva.org/

http://www.avaaz.org/en/

and http://www.ageuk.org.uk/

We shall definitely announce - the day, the time and the place. Much love from Val and family.