My friend just died

[harsh_but_unfair]

and I am sad.

She was in her eighties, and she was my surrogate grandmother and good friend for many years. When she was diagnosed with cancer last year the doctors told her she had one or two years left, but she had no intentions of letting that hold her back.

I am a thousand miles away, it's been over a year since I last saw her, and I'm due to make the trip in just a couple of weeks.

Guess I'll be cracking open that bottle of Grouse tonight. It seems like sacrilege to toast her memory with anything less than a single malt, but it will have to do for now.