Josh, New York 1986

I met Josh in 1986 when I went out with his flat mate Brien. I spent a few months hanging out at their apartment on 101st, the winter after they had finished college. I was around the apartment often in the day times and Josh seemed to be around often too so we talked a lot. Once he got me some work doing some kind of street surveys for the people he worked for. I was always broke and this was great, I did some of the work but had miss understood the instructions (being from England). He sheepishly asked me one day what I had been doing and when the miss understanding emerged he said "Thank God! I thought you were an idiot or something!".

One night Brien and I came home from somewhere late to find Josh on the sofa covered in blood, having just knocked his front teeth out in a bike accident. He was sitting there with a mouth full of tissues and bandages but was STILL cheerful and laughing about what an idiot he had been.

I bumped into him years later in a restaurant in NY and he hinted that he would love to visit England. It was before email and I lost his address and never got around to sending him an invite to come and stay. I regret that. I think what an happy, optimistic and energetic person he was must be a credit to his upbringing and I'm very sorry he didn't get to have more time on this earth of ours.

Best wishes to his family x