Hello Graham I cannot see you now. You are in another room. But I can still talk to you. You are there. And one day I will be able to see you again. I miss you unreasonably much. Unreasonable because I did not really know you that well. You lived in exotic Normandy and I in Phuket. We met occasionally. So your passing should not have impacted my life so much. But it has because you were always there – a bedrock. You are practical, down to earth, the embodiment of English values, and totally dependable. You were always there. “In Case of Emergency Break Glass and call Greyhound.” We might all meet in the wee small hours in Calvados-fuelled optimism and promise to congregate again at dawn for some adventure. But you were the one that would actually be there, and you would wait for us. You were always there. You have embodied patience to which most could only aspire. If proof were needed, you did live with my sister for so many years. You were always there. You loved to barbeque, and we would joke about it. But it was always there. I am sitting in Riyadh and reflecting on things. I wish I could be at your memorial Graham but it is impossible for me. And that fills me with remorse and guilt. Because I know that if the situation had been reversed. You would have been here. In everyone’s life there is always something else to do But you were always there - doing it. And then you left for that other room in the untroubled way that somehow sums you up. You left quietly efficiently and without fuss when it was your time. That was very hard for those who loved you. We would have liked some time to prepare, time to adjust. Because you were always there. Now you are not here. And you have left a gaping fissure in all our lives Because you were always there.