I'm sorry to hear about your friend. It's never easy to talk about the grief - the emptiness - their passing leaves behind, is it?

During our last conversation last year - in late April - she asked me to do something for her; of course I said 'Anything.' She told me to live life to the fullest - better than how I am now. She could see more for me than I was putting into my life; something I couldn't see.
Within the week, she was gone.
So, for the past 11 months, I've been decluttering my house in a huge way, I've organised an annual day called 'Vintage Clothing Day' (held on June 5th - the day she was laid to rest, because the ME doesn't know exactly when she died, as she was found a few days after she went missing). And I'm now saving up my money to buy a trailer tent to go traveling and paint and photograph places I've always wanted to go to.

These are places she planned to go to when she hoped to travel here in Australia, but never got the chance to come here. So, I'm going to do the traveling, photography, and blogging for her. I'm also going to paint these places in such a way that people will want to see them - as I'm a landscape oil painter - and this is what I've wanted to do with my life. It may not seem like much, but to me it's fun. While I'm away painting, I'll also be writing a book too.

I can't replace my friend - but I am fulfilling what she asked me to do last year; it's just going to take some time.