Kathy Caplan
It was the summer of 1991 and I was away on holiday. I called my mum from a phone box - it was the days before mobile phones. Mum told me that a friend from uni had called to say that if I was still looking for a flat to rent she knew of 2 lovely girls who were looking for a third to flatshare in Hendon. The only issue was that I had to decide before meeting the two girls. All I had to go on was that Jo said they were lovely girls and I would get on really well with them. So I said yes. Those girls were Simone and Gill, and that flatshare started our wonderful friendship which lasted over 30 years.
We enjoyed so much over those years. Weddings - Gill and Andy married 3 weeks after Andy and I. We returned from our honeymoon and went straight up to Manchester for their wedding. We had kids around the same time and to our delight Ben and Zak are still great friends today, totally independently of us. Bar and bat mitzvahs were also wonderful times.
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From when the children were young the Frasers, Pins, Goldbergs and us spent every New Years Eve together. Initially we had all 11 children with us too, but as the kids grew up they moved away from our get togethers and eventually it was just the adults. We had some great evenings. One that springs to mind was when we did a murder mystery dinner party. Everyone dressed up and played their part - Andy Fraser was the biggest surprise in how he embraced the dressing up (with moustache and sombrero) and staying in character, complete with accent, all evening.
In many of her jobs, Gill did not work on Fridays and for as long as I can remember a group of us would go out for breakfast or lunch on the Friday closest to Gill's birthday. It was always a lovely celebration of a great friend.
For many years now Gill and Andy, and in later years just Gill, would come to spend time at our flat near Bournemouth during the summer. These were lovely relaxing times. One day the 2 of us went for a very long walk and it was a windy day. We coveted each other’s hair as hers was really thick and mine really fine. I would have loved thick hair and she would have liked hair that did not need so much looking after. That day she took a photo of the two of us where my hair was sticking up on end due to the wind. On random days, long after that event, Gill would send me the pic just to make me smile - that’s the kind of person she was.
I am not surprised that Gill had the most friends of anyone I know. It’s because she herself was such a fabulous friend. She was always at the end of a phone or happy to go on long walks while we shared our good times and bad times. She was great fun to be with and a true, loyal friend. I will miss her.