Ray (of sunshine)

I didn't have enough work to fill my time today so I looked at the news.
I had already heard most of the headlines but was shocked to read farther down that a former colleague has died suddenly, unexpectedly and far too young, in Italy.
Ray and I worked together for about nine months from July 1988 in a funny little interior design practice on Eltham High Street, London SE9 (just around the corner from where Stephen Lawrence would later be murdered). Our employer had landed a very prestigious contract and Ray was leading the conceptual design while I was responsible for fitting it all together. I was only 27 and today's news tells me that Ray must have been only 24 when the two of us were attending client meetings together without a responsible adult. I recall one particular meeting when Ray was to make a big presentation and I was there as back-up, with a few plans in case the client needed to see which finishes were proposed for which locations. The plans occupied almost no space in my briefcase and so my boyfriend of that era had stuffed my professional-looking brief-case full of small soft toys – teddies and hedgehogs, raccoons and koalas – goodness knows what! I have no idea why I might even have owned such a collection, but there they were, crammed in to my very smart case.
I was good enough to wait until the client Q&A session at the end of the meeting was drawing to a close before I took my briefcase off the conference table, put it on my knees and flipped the catches open so that Ray could cop an eyeful of the mélange of soft toys mocking the whole palaver. His eyes flashed fury at me but his face remained perfectly composed in front of the client. I will never forget that exchange, a moment to cherish.
We were friends and he used to pop down the hill from his flat to mine to enjoy the sunshine on my private roof-terrace on a Saturday morning. He wanted to be an actor. He had always wanted to be an actor, but his parents had suggested it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have another career to fall back on, which is why he studied interior design before he studied drama.
On his visits to my gaff he would ask me to suggest an emotion, which he would then try to express facially, and I was tasked with photographing that so he could scrutinise it later. Of course this was pre-digital and I don't suppose he ever saw any of the images I took. I think I probably trashed them in 2005 when I moved to Greece.
I don't know exactly when we lost touch. I got another job, I got a different boyfriend, I became a regular at a different pub and I've no idea when Ray moved away. It wasn't until I happened to recognise him in The Other Guys that I first realised my buddy had succeeded in his ambition.
God bless you Ray
xxxxx
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