The doctor

The third death was just before Christmas although not entering the obituaries in the local paper until mid January. 

This one is a significant person to me but one I knew only very briefly but he made a very positive impact on me at a time when I was feeling very adrift.

This is the retired doctor who sat next to me in my philosophy class each week for two years and who I became close to and off-loaded to him about what had happened with my former partner.  I have written about it before.   He was a good listener and a good responder.   I won't bore you with it all but there was one very important conversation that stands out for me when he said I did not need to feel guilt about what had happened and I should not carry the burden of it.  This conversation ended with me in tears and a letting go of a lot of the tension I had been carrying for two years.  (This conversation took place outside the classroom in a car park after the class).

We remained friends at the philosophy class until Covid ended it abruptly in 2020.  We later swapped emails when he went to the Everest base camp, an adventure he had been planning for several years, and training for,  and I know that that all went well.  I emailed him when we had a new philosophy class three years ago but he never replied.  

The obituary in the local paper said that he died on the 5th December although the announcement was not made until mid January.  The wording was such that it puzzles me as no illness was mentioned and the announcement was very slow to appear in the paper.  No funeral was mentioned either.  I am sad because I had always thought I would see him again.  He was younger than me having retired early from the NHS.