"Who wants to live forever" - Queen

Last week I put the following up as my facebook status "Who wants to live forever anyway". A dear friend of mine corrected me by saying that anyway doesnt belong at the end of that line. My response was that I put it there for a personal reason. I know the real line is either the line in the title of this blog or "who waits forever anyway".

In July 2006 Myself and a really close friend Sarah went to the opening night of "Queen at the Ballet" in The Point Depot in Dublin. It is a South African production run by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to raise money for AIDS in Africa. Due to the closeness the charity has with Ireland through fundraising they decided it would be lovely to have the 1st ever show outside of South Africa in Dublin. The rummor was that Nelson himself was going to be there for the opening of the show and do a speach. In the end due to illness Mandela couldnt come but sent his daughter instead. Her speach was amazing.

It was a last minute decision for us to go( we were both huge Queen fans so that persuaded us to go in the end). We were really surprised to get tickets to the 1st night. I was a bit iffy about how ballet would work with Queen songs. "Radio GaGa" was funny, "Barcelona" had the hairs standing on the back of my neck. Their singers were amazing. However "who wants to live forever" came on, it was beautiful and moving and the dancing worked so well with the song. I remember it like it was yesterday. There was 3 couple performing. 2 male and female couples and a couple of 2 men. They danced amazingly with each other but by the end of the song they had all died in each others arms. I remember Sarah turning around and saying "omg I can't stop crying" to which my response was "me either". We left the show completely overwhelmed mainly by that dance alone.

On October 12th 2006 I received a phone call to my office from a friend of Sarahs telling me she had died the day before. I was devastated, I had only known her for 2.5 years but she had become one of my closest friends in that time. We were both going through tough times and were there to support each other. Sarah has suffered from depression a lot longer and a lot worse to what I had. Her father said at her funeral "She has died from her disease". I got a family friend to make a beautiful wreath for her and on the card I wrote "We will always have 'Queen at the Ballet'. Who wants to live forever anyway... Claire". Her sister told me later that she was touched by those words as it meant something to both myself and Sarah. Rather then the usual RIP notes.

I still miss her and am teary sharing this now. I cannot listen to this song without crying as it reminds me of that night.

Happy 28th Birthday Sarah. Wish you were here xxx