Four years ago Paul and I were invited to dinner by friends to meet at the local pub The Fox and Hounds, and they brought a couple of  other friends with them. One of these was  Sonia Borde, with whom I clicked immediately and we became instant friends. From that date we emailed constantly and then would meet up for lunches and coffees and talk like there was no tomorrow.

She lived at the other end of my street and would refer to herself as 'The Northern Long Rd. correspondent as I was 'The Southern Long Rd. correspondent, ha ha.

We would fill each other in with local items of interest and she would send me humourous emails as I would her. She was going to put paintings etc.  in the gallery but when her illness came back she was just happy for me to email her with the building of the gallery and everything new that happened, saying she was so proud of what we were doing.

We shared so much in common. She had many artistic pursuits whether it was painting, sewing, gardening, writing, painting backdrops for theatre and films  etc. and had so many stories of the interesting life she had led to that point.

She would talk about how she had travelled on the high seas and had many adventures and lived in exotic countries but I never got the complete picture as we would run out of time. I wish she had written a book about it all really. There is so much more i would like to know now that she has passed.

At her memorial service I got to meet Camilla and Charlie who have so much of her spirit in them. Her gentleness, sincerity, creativeness and warmness as human beings. She was so proud of them too. She was such a private lady though and wouldn't tell us a lot.

It am so pleased to have met her and shared a little of life's journey and now met her wonderful family too. Rest in peace, Sonia.