Nicky at the ‘Summer In The Son’ camp in 1993.

Yesterday, I found out that one of my best friends from when I was in my 20s died this Tuesday. Nicky – Reardon as she was back then, now Nicky Sutherland – was like a sister to me back during the 90s – she was the actual sister of one of my good friends from school, Mark, but I got to know Nicky originally through church and the youth group, and we became pretty close around that time.

She was really funny, friendly, genuine, and very determined/opinionated! I fondly remember going on holiday to Aberdyfi with Nicky, her boyfriend Matt, Debbie and Claire, and us just having such a fun week away. And just generally hanging out a lot, having a proper laugh (usually taking the mickey out of each other!), and I also produced an album of her singing as a birthday present for her mum.

Another memory is of a few of us having a small party at her mum and dad’s for New Year’s – I know Matt had come up from London for it, and maybe Debbie and Claire were there, and we all stayed over with no actual ‘adults’ at the house, which was very trusting of her mum and dad! Anyway, what I do remember about it is that we ended up repainting a section of the wall above the fireplace because of dark smoke-burns from the candles that we’d lit… only to discover the next morning when the sun streamed into the room that we’d patched over the marks with shiny gloss paint instead of the surrounding matt emulsion!! I still don’t know whether her parents ever discovered what we’d done!

We last saw each other about 20 years ago when we bumped into each other at the Snowdome whilst I was down in Tamworth having some lessons before going to Switzerland, and later on became ‘friends’ again on Facebook. When I heard last year that she’d been diagnosed with brain cancer, we said we’d have to catch up sometime when I was back in Tamworth… but we didn’t, and it upsets me that I never got around to doing that.

Nicky Sutherland (Reardon) – 18 Jun 1977 – 15 Oct 2024.