Submission 80

Dear Joel,

Today would be your 25th Birthday, it’s also marks 5 years since we lost you.

I’ve come to the tough realisation that I have now officially lived without you as long as I lived with you. We became friends at 15, lost you at 20 and now I’m 25. And that is a pretty bitter pill to swallow.

I thought I’d use this opportunity to fill you in on what you’ve missed so far.

- I graduated from Drama School
- Started a career in technical theatre
- Boris Johnson became our prime minister and we left the EU.
- Alena went back to uni and now works as a chef in a fancy restaurant.
- There was a worldwide pandemic and we were literally locked down for the best part of TWO YEARS. You (You’d have gone stir crazy)
- Eve and Dan are engaged and getting married!
- I fell in love
- I am currently working in The West End and my career is starting to take off.

It’s been a pretty busy 5 years but there’s one thing that would have made all these things even sweeter and that would be having been able to share all these things with you. And having your own triumphs for us to celebrate too. I wish you’d stayed.

I missed you yesterday, I miss you today and I’ll miss you tomorrow.

Happy Birthday my boy