No Way to Say Goodbye

by Anna McPartlin

  To my friends: Valerie K – to me you will always be my Hallie and no one makes me laugh the way you do; Fergus E, I love you like a fat kid loves cake; Enda B, did you ever know that you’re my hero? Sing it with me now – you’re everything I wish I could be. Tracy K, I’d jig naked just to hear you laugh; Edel and Noel S and Lucy and Darren W, you’re sensible, forthright, intelligent, irreverent, funny and I’m glad I met you; Joanne C, you are me in a parallel universe except you get to be blonde and have better dress sense but I love our weird ways; John G, how can I not love a guy who married the blonde, better-looking and better-dressed me? Martin C, the first time I met you I was wearing baggy pants and bunny slippers and you didn’t hold it against me – you are and will always be one of my best friends; to Trish C for making me fill out forms on an Easter Monday – I know I moaned but without you we’d still be renting; Graham D, for those nights when the band was courting record companies in Reynard’s or Lillie’s and I was bored stupid – you always knew what to say – and to your wife Bernice D for becoming a great friend; Angela D, the ultimate punk rocker with flowers in her hair; to Lisa and Warren: Lisa sings, Warren supports, and you can’t beat that.

  To my friends from Kenmare: Leonie K, we laughed, we cried, people died, we survived and through it all I love you; Dermot K, I love you, your wife and your kids; Cliff M, you’re the only person in the whole world I would watch a gardening show with; Gareth T, you get me on a whole different level; Mark L, thank you for being the first person to tell me a joke after Mum died – I’ll love you for ever for that; Nina B, for being one of the kindest and best people I’ve ever known; Bernice and Rosita, the C twins, for our friendship through all those years.

  To the buyers and sellers in Easons, Hughes and Hughes, Dubray and Tesco: your support has been overwhelming and much appreciated, thank you, thank you, thank you.

  To Paula Campbell, Poolbeg’s publisher – you have the hardest job of all. You find talent where others don’t. Without you many of the writers in this country wouldn’t have been heard of. Thank you.

  To all at Penguin in Ireland and the UK: Michael O’Loughlin, Patricia Deevy. Thank you.

  To my agent Faith O’Grady, I’m scattered and you’re coping, to you and all at Lisa Richards, thank you.

  And finally to the people of Kenmare, thank you.