Memories of Jim

Jim and I have apparently been unable to avoid each other for the last 14 years, be it school, university, or working within yards of each other here in Birmingham, where, as luck would have it, we had a pub between our offices.

I have years of happy memories of Jim, from early ones like disasterously entertaining our school house with an impromptu guitar/harmonica duet and being in Annie Get Your Gun together (when we somehow, and we never did quite figure it out, managed to completely miss out one of the songs), to more recent ones such as his prowess and (painful) accuracy at paintball, and his fears of being used as a botox guineapig ("He keeps staring at my forehead!"), which of course was relayed hilariously.

As Lee says, none of them will fade quickly.

Various members of my family met James on a couple of occasions, and even after only one meeting, he was invariably burned into their memory, and became "Jim". No other description was necessary. They just knew who you were talking about. I think it was the same for everyone he met.

Similarly, everyone I've spoken to who has heard the news said that a large part of them just refuses to believe it. Many have said that they expect Jim to walk into their offices, or to meet him in the pub, and hear a familiar "Hello, chief".

We have lost one of the most lively, funny, steadfast mates anyone could have.

Jim, myself and a few others had been having lunch together once a fortnight for the last few months. We were meant to have one on 3/3/06. Our friend never arrived. He will be missed.

Posted on behalf of Rob Delaney