For Lisa Lena

On Saturday I heard the dreadful news that one of my best friends had died in Finland. Lisa Lena was Professor of English at Oulu University and we shared a wonderful few years of research, teaching, conference and workshop organising, and fun together. I was her bridesmaid when she married the Professor of Forestry at Helsinki University. She was always so ALIVE and it is so hard to believe she is gone.

Lisa Lena (like me) enjoyed cider, dry cider, not the sweet Swedish stuff you could get in Finland. A colleague had spoken of Thistly Cross cider and I'd found it locally. On Saturday, before I learned of Lisa Lena's passing, I found this whisky cask matured cider, buying it, and thinking " I must tell Lisa Lena about this". Came home to the message that she had died the weekend before.

On Friday I will go back to Helsinki. I will go to the places we always went to, watch the boats leaving in the evening for Stockholm, shop in Stockmanns, Aarikka and Marimekko, attend her funeral on Saturday in the largest church in Helsinki, and it will never seem so empty. I am grateful for the wonderful, wonderful memories, but am grieving for part of my life which is gone.

Rest in peace Lisa Lena. It was a privilege to know you.