On Sunday I got the phone call that no-one ever wants got receive. Our very much loved friend, Swighty, had died.
Swight, real name Sarah Wight, but always Swight, was diagnosed with cancer – god, I'm not entirely sure when she first heard, but it was well over a year ago. Last Christmas I remember her talking about 'doing something for Woodsie's 50th in the summer', but she still wasn't well enough then.
She made it out of the country (always a traveller, loved her underwater world) in Oct 2022, to watch Woodsie, her other half, win a gold medal at the World Cup in Cape Town. Most of the match videos have her shouting her head off in support in the background. Typical Swight!
She had a pile of treatment and various abortive attempts to take out the tumours, but nothing seemed to work. The bloody things just multiplied and got bigger.
I last saw her in the Marsden just before we went to India last month. She was in reasonable form, though with very thin arms and legs. She walked me to the door on the ground floor and we had a big hug. It turns out, the last one.
But Swight was SO much more than the last crappy, painful, shitty year of her life. She was the life and soul of the party. Always the one suggesting a drinking game, many of which were at her old flat, 'The Palace', in the shared garden at a BBQ, come rain (usually torrential, as we sheltered under tarpaulins) or shine. Always the one to want to take a group selfie. Here in Pam's garden, right in the middle of the action.
Great fun on tour – and essential! Swight was a damn good goalie, able to pull off diving saves despite the many pints of beer she would have downed the night before.
A master of surprises – she actually 'kidnapped' Woodsie, on Woodsie's birthday (Xmas Day) – I think with a bag over her head – and brought her to our house once for surprise birthday fizz and sausage rolls.
Top fun at all parties – here at my & Claire's 50th bash with the hockey girls in Epsom. I'm glad we didn't know then what shit was to come. Claire & I were chatting about how Swight pogo-ed into the band at her & Jon's wedding in Cannizzaro House, hilarious as ever.
Nothing makes me more glad than the fact that she & Woodsie got engaged to each other a while ago – here celebrating with us at Claire's house in Epsom, not far from where they lived together.
And that they were at our wedding, treasured memories of two people who were super right together, yet another smack in the face from bloody cancer and it's indiscriminate devastation of good people's lives.
Swight – you were a bloody legend and god knows you will be missed by so many.
x x