Catherine Grigg: She sat neath the lilac and played her oboe beautifully.

Goodness. 21 years of friendship makes it difficult to know where to start. I guess at the very beginning.. our childhood songs.
Not just the ones you sing at school, but the ones you sing at school then continued to sing for years to come;

• The one about the woman who sat neath the lilac and played her guitar
• The five hairy monsters in the playground
• Have you got the sunshine smile :-) (My gosh, Ester certainly had!!!)
• And then the one about the ooples and bonooonooos... (this starts off as "I like to eat, eat eat eat, I like to eat, apples and bananas..". Then you change the vowels each time so its.. "I like to ite, iples and bininis", "i like to oot, ooples and banoonoos...." so on and so forth...) Never failed to amuse us!!!

When Ester started volunteering at Salusbury Primary School she called me to say "Catherine! You'll never guess where I am!!" She said, "It's just the same but they've made everything so much smaller..".

Ester was the deepest purple. Not just as her favourite colour, she was deep purple.
Deeply passionate, deeply spiritual, open and accepting.

Her soul was open to everyone - connecting people on a deeper level than the everyday. In her prescence, one's own soul recognised that, even if the head didn't.
So, even if not having met up for a while.. we'd start talking, catching up... but before i'd know it, my soul was open too - free and at ease - talking about my deepest feelings and emotions... perhaps even ones i didn't know i had!

She saw people in their whole, their entirety, in their past present and future and because of this she would not cast judgement. Even if she knew that what you were doing in that time and space wasn't ideal... she would have faith in you, show support, encouragement and love.

Thank you darling Ester. You are my angel and my star. I will ALWAYS love you, for who you were, and who you are.