Memories Of Sara.

In Weymouth.

I moved to Westbury in 1987 because of work and lived in a bedsit in Church Lane. I started frequenting a pub called the White Lion on the town square. On the right-hand side was a room where all the hippy and punky types of Westbury used to congregate on the benches around the pool table. It was there that I first spotted Sara. She was a lot younger than me; I was about 35 and I would guess Sara was only about 20. She was very nice looking, but never at the centre of things, always sitting quietly on the edges, observing the goings on. She was very shy until you got to know her. We gradually became friends. Whenever there was a jumble sale on I would see Sara there. She started visiting me at my bedsit and I would go and visit her. She lived at Westbury Leigh with a friend Jane. It was like a farmhouse with open countryside out the back. I think Sara really liked living there. She also had another friend called Kate who she got on with very well. I think Jane and Kate knew Sara a lot better than me.

Messing About.

Sara was sensitive and got upset about things very easily. I think she was highly intelligent as well but didn’t know what to do with it. She was a free spirit. There is a song by Richard Thompson called Beeswing and the words of the song remind me of Sara, ‘she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing So fine a breath of wind might blow her away’. I started living in a flat in Maristow Street with Kim. She could be very jealous. Kim did not like me having female friends. Sara was the exception though; Kim became good friends with Sara as well. I think she recognised a kindred spirit. I didn’t share the same music taste as Sara though. I liked Van Morrison and folk music; Sara liked The Pixies and Captain Beefheart. I still have a cassette tape of Clear Spot by Captain Beefheart that Sara made for me.

Glasto.

  In 1990 Kim and I had one of our regular bust-ups and I went to Glastonbury with Sara. I had a ticket for the festival, but Sara did not. She wasn’t worried about minor details like that though.  She didn’t have a train ticket either, but the train was so packed it was impossible for them to check the tickets. The security at Glasto were searching everyone’s bags looking for stuff that they could confiscate for themselves. It worked to our advantage because while they were going through my rucksack Sara sneaked past on their blind side and just strolled through the gate with no problems. I don’t remember much about the music that year, but I think we had a good time.

Weymouth.

Another nice memory I have of Sara is one day she asked if I fancied going to Weymouth for the day. The weather was nice, and we went on the train. It was good fun. We did lots of silly things like playing bingo and going to the amusement arcades. I think that was the very last time I ever went swimming in the sea.

Jane got married to Steve and they moved to Ireland. Sara lived in various places after that. She started going out with a man whose name I can’t remember, only his nickname. They used to visit us occasionally, but things were changing. They had a baby, but that relationship ended, and Sara went out with someone else who I can’t remember at all. Eventually she moved to Poole.

We kind of kept in touch and I have a vague memory of visiting Sara in Poole at her mum’s house and I met her brother I think, but my memory of that is very hazy. 

Part of Sara's letter.

We hadn't heard from Sara for a few months until in February 1998 we had a letter in which she told us that she had breast cancer which had spread to her lungs. I think she made the mistake of not going to the doctor soon enough. Kim and I visited her in Poole hospital one Saturday afternoon. She was being very brave and even sent us out to buy her some lottery tickets. A few weeks later we were on holiday in Ireland when Steve rang to tell us the news that Sara had passed away. We didn’t go to the funeral.

I sometimes wondered what became of Sara’s children Rosa, Corey & Alice. I never made the effort to find out though. 

This January by chance I met Kate in the street and Sara came up in the conversation. Kate told me that Rosa now had her own band and had even played in Westbury. I looked on youtube for the Rosa Gray Band and found them. I was pleased that Rosa is doing well. Then yesterday I got a message on Facebook from Alice via Jane. She said that she was trying to learn more about her mum from Sara’s friends. I told Alice I would write a story about what I could remember of Sara and add some photos. That is why I wrote this story. I hope Alice likes it.

Kate sent me this photo a couple of years ago. I'm the one on the end sitting next to Sara.

Like The River Loves The Sea by Joan Shelley.

I opened the front door this morning and two metres away was the smiling post lady. “Package for you”, she said. “Thank you”, I replied. She had left it on my doorstep. I knew what it was, a new CD. I went in the kitchen and opened the package and put the CD in the player. Then I washed my hands because you cannot be too careful. What strange times we are living in.

It was a warm sunny day, so I sat in my yard by the back door and soaked up the music and the sun. The album is called Like the River Loves the Sea. It is by an American singer-songwriter called Joan Shelley. An internet friend had recommended her music to me a few days ago and I remembered that I had seen Joan supporting Richard Thompson in Salisbury in late 2018. I had been extremely impressed with her at the time but had gradually forgotten about that evening. I am grateful for the reminder because this is a genuinely nice album.

Joan comes from Louisville Kentucky and this is her seventh album. It was recorded in Iceland in 2019. I cannot hear an Icelandic influence in the music though. Maybe if you go somewhere different and look back at where you have been, then it becomes an art form. Nathan Salsburg who I think played guitar with her when I saw her live is on the album. There are some Icelandic musicians as well and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy whose name I have heard before sings harmonies on a couple of tracks.

I have only heard the album twice, so I am not going to talk about each individual song. The album has a nice consistency of mood which I always like. I would describe it as country flavoured folk music I suppose. Usually when I listen to a singer for the first time I am reminded of other singers. I do not really get that feeling with Joan, except maybe a hint of Joni Mitchell around the time of Blue. There is one song called Cycle which mentions a lover coming home late which made me think of The Speed of The Sound Of Loneliness by John Prine. That might be because I have had John Prine in my brain the last couple of weeks. The songs all seem to be very personal love songs.

Teal is a nice song, talking about ‘fresh air, the wind and the rain’, even the birds in the trees nearby seemed to be singing along with that song. I also liked the cello, violin and viola of the two Icelandic sisters on Tell Me Something. Any Day Now is a perfect upbeat song to end the album with. In the booklet of lyrics there is a poem by Max Porter which contains the line I want to stay all night which is the title of one of the songs and makes me wonder just how autobiographical Joan’s lyrics are. Maybe sometimes they are quasi-autobiographical words inspired by other writers’ work. That does not matter though. This album creates a mellow feeling of well being in the listener and hearing this album on a nice sunny day made the catastrophe of coronavirus seem a long way off and I’m glad I heard it today for that reason alone.