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This is a story told in the first person but it’s NOT my story.

However…..

There’s this girl I used to see. Passed me every day with her mum she did on the way to school with her sister.

Until one day she didn’t.

Was just 12.

Turns out she’d written a note just like the one in this story for her best friend. A last note.

So I thought I’d write a story about what it must feel like to be her, the best friend, the feelings she must have dealt with.

But wanted to write it from the position of someone much older looking back, the event still haunting her.

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author

And I saw someone wearing a T shirt that said that on it today and thought I could bring it in.

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I thought about writing ‘your bridge’ instead of ‘the bridge’ at the end, but kind of liked it left slightly more open to interpretation.

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The meaning was quite evident to the readers who were paying attention. Well done.

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Thanks. I’m not the most subtle person in the world and am working to get my writing a little more understated. Not to yell.

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My academic advisor/English prof would say to “show not tell.” I don’t think you were yelling…you were showing. 😊

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Powerful writing Julie. Really vivid and the peachy coloured T shirt woman appeared fully formed in my mind x

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Aw bless you, I appreciate your encouragement, Fiona.

I saw her in real life yesterday, the woman in the peach T shirt, it’s what gave me the idea to write the story. I was on the bus going over *that* bridge and it came to me “what if that best friend were sat here now instead of me, what would she think if she saw that T-shirt with that message on it?”

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Oh I loved that. I thought it was about you at first until the name Joanne came into it. So sad though. Xx

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Was trying to think of an 80’s name and had been listening to Human League yesterday innit😂😂

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😂😂😂

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Julie. I felt every bit of this. omg 😢

I instantly had Janis Ian's "17" in my head and tears. I know she was younger (in the story) but nonetheless it's starting earlier now. The pain. The torment. Social media pressure, anxiety and depression.

You are my favorite writer. ox

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❤️ much love and strength to you and yours xx

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Powerful story. I too thought it was about you until the end.

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founding

An evocative story. Working in the mental health field, I often experience a weird inversion of this. People tell me they’re going to kill themselves, on a fairly frequent basis, but they’re still here. As difficult as those conversations might be, they’re vastly preferable to the scenario in your tale.

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I can imagine. Yes this young girl, can still see her face. They moved away afterwards but one day I saw her mum and I was just dumbstruck. Didn’t know what to say at all.

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So very good. Thank you for sharing. This is a gift to many…I’m quite sure.

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Thank you Angie. I appreciate that xx

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Julie, such a beautiful story! Seriously, I have tears in my eyes. Reminds me of all the little things, the moments I remember after mom died. I was so out of it, so completely numb, and the world just felt off.

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Bless you lovely. Yes the strangest things stay with us don’t they? Xx

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Beautiful writing. I laughed at the wearing your dead fiancé's ashes part. I guess there's always this macabre humour when death is around!

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Ha - yeah that’s my own personal reaction when I see those ads, woven in there. That wtaf!!😂😂😂

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Beautiful 💙

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Thank you xx

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Brilliant story, Julie. Captures the agony of teenage years and that powerful sense of loss.

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Thanks. I did bring some of own experiences into it. The animal rights thing, feeling all that strongly as a teen. And my best friend (who was heavily troubled) did actually carve out a boy’s name on her arm with a compass.

Decided to write it cause yesterday my bus passed over ‘her’ bridge and I did see the lady with the peach T shirt on with that message on it.

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It works, weaving in the personal in that way. I chose to become vegetarian a teenager for the same reasons you describe. That stayed with me, I’m still veggie!

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Yes. It’s a time when you feel everything so starkly. The pain of the world. I certainly did. I eat fish but still don’t eat meat . I hear you xx

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What a sad thing to experience at such a relatively young age.

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author

Yes this didn’t happen to one of my friends. It happened to a girl who lived near me (now I’m an adult). I used to pass her with her mum and sister every day, say hello.

One day she took her life and I later found out she’d written a note to her best friend with instructions not to open it til later.

So I took the experience and turned it into a story of someone my own age looking back on it.

Someone in my class died of cancer when I was about that age though and I remember finding that very shocking.

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You just don't expect cancer in the young. Someone in my daughter's reception class died of cancer. He was 4.

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author

Oh 💔

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Superbly poignant story; the letter… everything is normal…driving over the bridge. A reminder and we’re suddenly back to the ache of long ago. You encapsulated it perfectly.

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Thank you. I was on a bus driving over the actual bridge she used today and that’s what made me think of it sadly x

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