I am so very grateful that Linda brought you into my life. So grateful for all those years that we have been close. Years when I could help you grow. Years when you could help me too. Joys, disappointments, excitements, problems, pleasures.
I remember correcting your wobbles on a bicycle. You chose not to use all those gears that make it easy. You preferred the single pure fixed gear. You went pretty fast when you got the hang of it. I remember giving a nudge to help with a wobble in your studies. Even recently you asked for such nudges when you weren't sure of some strategy or other.
But
you gave me those nudges too. And if I was way off course I could expect
more than a nudge. I felt your love most strongly when you pulled me up;
told me off. Not unfairly, but in that way of yours that never rejected
or pulled away. Emma, you loved us. You demanded of life and of others
because you loved life and others.
Generous and demanding that's you. You would have been a great mother
but you never had a child. Perhaps, tragically, that was for the best.
However, the biggest smile I saw in the last few weeks was when you told
me that you had just seen little ten day old Emma Louise again. You were
thrilled to be an aunt.
I remember in Moscow, in the USSR of 1990, you slipped out of the free lunches to lead Rob on secret adventures round that fascinating city. How you annoyed our serious Russian minder when he lost you. Though in the end, even he forgave you.
Emma. Big sister. I was never sure whether you gave Meroë good advice or led her astray. I do know that that you were special and you are irreplaceable in our family life.
I always watched the boyfriends, of-course. And Emma, why did you want them further and further away? When you were in Rothley, Birstall didn't seem too bad. When you were in Edinburgh it was Glasgow. But in Manchester it was Berlin and in London it became Boston, Massachusetts. Even when Colin moved close to you he was mostly in Turin.
