Sad news.

I found out last night that the wife of a family friend has died of a rare form of cancer.
She, J, was involved in some sort of social work, he was a university lecturer, now retired. She had a daughter who is severely mentally and physically handicapped, who will never understand where her mum has gone.
He, C, was a friend my dad made when he went on a course in the 70s. Despite no real education, my dad is incisive, intelligent and interested in the subject, so they obviously engaged immediately. I was only very young at the time, less than 10, but a few years later he came to stay with us on holiday in Anglesey. Apparently his wife had walked out on him (I hear later) and he was in a bad way.
Dad, C and I walked up Snowdon together on a scorchingly hot day. I think it might have been 1976. Later in the week C took my younger sister and me to a chippy with a restaurant while mum and dad went for a meal, and there was a BBQ on the beach involving a fire made from seaweed and dried cow dung... It remains one of the greatest holidays I ever had.
Later C met J, her husband divorced her within weeks of the daughter being born, and we went to visit them regularly. I was about 11-12 and they were the first people to treat me like a person, not just a kid who happened to be there. They asked proper questions, told me stuff when I asked, were interested in what I had to say, explained when I didn't understand (well - were appropriate).
I was inordinately fond of them.
In the early 80s C got a big job in an important university and they moved much further away, and we saw them much less often. One visit when I was about 15 involved a lock in in the village pub, more drink with dinner and, I realised much later, me being completely and utterly bolloxed at the end of the night. I remember J taking an interest and introducing me to Paul Simon's music. She was also sexy, one of the first women I looked at as a woman, and not 'just a mum'.
Although I'd not seen them for some years, my dad kept in touch, I'm deeply saddened by her death.

Thanks J.
With love from a guy still trying to be a One Trick Pony.