Our dear friend Eleanor Dainton has sadly gone on the ultimate away trip.
I’m not normally in the habit of blogging about the passing of friends, but Eleanor has featured in many of our travel blogs so it feels appropriate.
Eleanor has been quite ill for a good few years now, but casual acquaintances wouldn’t have known this. She wasn’t going to let her illness define her, she powered on and squeezed every drop out of life that she could. And that is how I will remember her. She was inspiring, motivating and fearless.
I got caught in her slipstream and my lack of hesitation in fulfilling my wanderlust dreams has undoubtedly been influenced by her. Her attitude was – Wales playing in China? Of course we are going. No direct flights to Bosnia? No problem, we will change in Austria. Kazakhstan rail website in Russian? Hold my pint, I’ll book the trains.
I will miss her handing out itineraries at the airport, her introducing me to new friends (she knew everyone worth knowing on away trips, and they all loved her) and her dragging me around foreign cities late at night trying to find the last bar open.
As well as being a doer, she was generous, caring and witty. I can’t recall ever spending five minutes in her company that was not punctuated by a belly laugh. Sometimes at my expense, often at hers. She was the gift that kept on giving.
I’ll remember the time the waitress in Brussels tore a strip off her for asking to change the ingredients on a signature pizza, her mispronounciation of the word ‘picturesque’ (picture-skew) and I will grin every time I recall her retelling the story of her and Gareth booked onto a caravan site not realising it was a naturist weekend.
There was the time she bought a bag off a Chinese lady and was suddenly surrounded by bag sellers. She didn’t have the heart to turn any of them away.
Too many stories, and i have only known her for a third of her life. But I’m sure we will all be sharing memories of her for many years to come.
Whilst there were many occasions Eleanor joined us for gigs and festivals, most of my memories of her include Gareth; the Romeo to her Juliet, the Wise to her Morecambe, the Becks to her Posh. A more loving couple you could not wish to meet. They ‘completed’ each other.
And that’s where my thoughts go now, to her kids Cae, Evan and Mia, who were not just her children, but her friends, and to Gareth, not just a husband, but literally, her other half.
Eleanor… missing you already. Find the best walking tour of heaven for us and don’t let them shut the bar before we get there.