Sunflower
Today is the end of week eight and my eighth COVID Blog.
This Morning the sun is shining and it is set to be a pleasant day. It would have in fact been the perfect weather for today’s event.
My blog is slightly different, as today would have been a significant day.
It would again have been yet another Sunday when I should have been elsewhere and once more, it should have been with my ‘Drama Group Family.’
A special day for a very special person.
As a group I should be taking part in ‘The Farleigh Hospice Walk for Life’ in memory of our friend and lifelong member Claire Wilson.
When I mentioned the fact that I would have been helping to clear away the set couple of weeks ago for the production we had to cancel due to COVID 19 I alluded to the fact that the image I posted was not the image I thought that those who know me well would expect me to post and that it would take another blog to explain.
This is that blog:
Claire was my friend my ‘Bestie Thespie’ if it wasn’t for our mutual friend Margaret introducing us and a mutual love of the arts, I doubt we would have ever met.
I can not believe it will be eight years ago in November that our group first performed the play ‘Calendar Girls’ by Tim Firth, this was to prove so incredibly poignant for both wonderful, personal, and such tragic reasons.
The play is centred around a group of real life ladies in a branch of the Yorkshire Women’s Institute or WI for short who decided to raise money for a blood cancer charity, this due to the fact that one of their members husbands had died from the disease. Their intention was to be photographed for a nude calendar of the WI ladies and their embarrassment covered by various items associated with the WI.
The symbol of this play is the humble sunflower, the title of this blog and a flower that has become so incredibly important to me.
To date, the real Calendar Girl ladies have raised over five million pounds for the cause.
Claire and I played the two best friends that centre in this play, a play that without a shadow of doubt has been one of my proudest moments. Not because we bravely (like the original Calendar Girls) took our clothes off on stage every night, not just that we managed to raise nearly five thousand pounds for the cancer charity but because the story is so beautifully entwined; with courage, with friendship and with love, everything that Claire represented.
Claire was first diagnosed with Breast Cancer shortly after our production finished and she passed after a brave and difficult battle. A war within her body that she courageously fought for four years. Claire was only forty-three years old.
Claire at the front, as always, leading us all. 🌻
The incident I am about to tell of and hugely over share of which I make absolutely no apology, sums up the type of silly and wonderfully special friendship we had.
On a trip to the theatre in London (one of many) I had a very unfortunate incident.
The play was called ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ which kind of summed up our day; we met early had lunch, took the Emirates Air Line across Greenwich, chatted, drank copious amounts of coffee, went for dinner at a seafood restaurant and then to the evening performance of said play.
During this time, Claire had been undergoing yet another round of chemotherapy treatment but had been advised that she could still socialise and complete outings with careful caution.
It was not long into the first act when I suddenly had horrendous pains in my stomach and then the very desperate need to visit the bathroom. I then caused much disarray asking people if they would kindly move to allow me out of my seat. Claire tried to insist that she came with me but I managed to make her stay so that at least one of us would get to watch the performance.
Everything really was pretty awful, stomach cramps, a very sweaty, hot, forehead and a very long period of time in the bathroom.
Eventually I managed to return, causing havoc once more and Claire filled me in on the play’s plot. My condition seemed far too quick to be food poisoning but that was the only explanation that came to mind. Claire I could see was very worried about me but I managed to watch the rest of the play, although very fearful of moving.
We both enjoyed the rest of the performance although I was definitely not concentrating as much as I should have been.
After another visit to the bathroom before we left, we then began the walk to the station and this is when both disaster and much hilarity struck.
Thank heaven my jeans were tucked into my long boots to keep everything contained, as after walking in a very bizarre stilted fashion and having to stop several times, Montezuma’s revenge struck (even though I wasn’t in Mexico, look it up) with almost every step and like any good friend Claire, could not stop laughing and despite this incredibly dire situation, neither could I.
We eventually managed to get on the tube, luckily my long coat covered any signs of calamity but I did feel extremely uncomfortable and very nervous. Claire offered to come home with me, this despite living in a completely different area and needing another train network to get home. This she offered because she was so very concerned about me, in between each giggle of course.
I did manage to allay her fears, that I would be fine even though I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be and so reluctantly, she left me to catch another tube connection and her train home.
Whilst on my train I received a text from Claire which read “I’m so sorry, I really didn’t want to leave you, I’m such a shitty friend.” To which I replied, “ Don’t be so silly, there is nothing you could do and I think you’ll find that I’m the ‘shitty’ friend!”
This awkward story sums Claire up, there she was going through such a cruel and heinous disease, poorly herself but worried how ‘I’ was.
Claire was simply extraordinary.
As I, we, can not walk in her memory today I have performed in her memory.
The link at the bottom of the page is a video link to the poem I have written about Claire.
Sunflowers are the colour of sunshine. I wish that you too are blessed with sunshine in your lives, not just today and through our current crisis but throughout your lives.
I know that I have, in the name of my ‘Bestie Thespie’ Claire Wilson.
I miss you darling girl.
Stay safe,
Joy xxx
