Light & Shade: for Chaiselongue

I had already blipped yesterday when I hear the tragic news of Chaiselongue's death and was too shocked to write anything remotely meaningful apart from a very curt edit. I'm not sure there'll be anything remotely meaningful here either - I think that's what's so unsettling, you look for meaning or sense and there is none.
Chaiselongue and I had been blipfriends for three years, we were hoping to meet up in the near future. The last day she blipped, the 5th July, that wonderfully colourful energetic glimpse of the Tour de France zooming through her village, she was the first to write a comment on mine. I'm finding it very difficult to come to terms with the fact that this very vibrant, thoughtful, energetic, caring woman is no longer with us. She was a formidable photographer - her intricate balconies, beautifully dilapidated mazets, luscious apricots were all instantly recognisable. She was a sensitive writer and poet, her poems about her grandmother being especially moving; she was a passionate supporter and fighter for human rights, a feminist, a fighter; she was a bon viveur, who can forget those mouthwatering descriptions of languid lunches by the sea; she had fully integrated herself in her adopted country and relished every moment there; and she adored her family, celebrating her 40 years of marriage to LoJ, delighted at the recent marriage of her daughter and looking forward to her son coming to live near them in France.
Her death was shockingly sudden - she seemed to have so much more to give and to do, but for her, Chaiselongue, what a wonderful way to go - a beautiful view, high spirits, with her partner. She has left an enormous void, painful and raw, but what a privilege to have known her. My thoughts and love are with LoJ and her children for their world has change irrevocably.

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