I’ve always called Claudette ‘ C’ from when we first met at Lambeth. We met at Hopton house at a photocopying machine, C introduced herself asking if I was new to Lambeth, which I was, we just clicked there and then and would chat whenever we passed each other in the lift or when on each other’s respective floors. In 2006, I moved to ‘C’’s team becoming her deputy manager, we would walk from new cross to Brixton most mornings when she wasn’t driving talking about everything the journey would go by so quickly as we just talked and talked. ‘C’ taught me so much about fostering and also about managing staff.
When ‘C’ left Lambeth we became closer, we would spend ages on the phone talking about our life’s, work, our kids and grandchildren. On one occasion which we referred to as our ‘mammoth session’ we talked for 6 hours straight, no breaks, we laughed, played each other our favourite old time lovers rock tunes and put the world to rights. In 2013 We traveled to Jamaica, for 2 weeks, we laughed, relaxed and always referred to that break as the best holiday because it was peaceful, fun and we laughed non stop, whenever we spoke about that trip we used a few words, ‘opportunist and orange’’ which summed up some experiences we had while there. In 2016 ‘’C’’ called me on 16.07.16 and asked what I was doing the following day, I told her nothing and she said ‘do you want to come to Venice’ of course I did, so off we went, neither of us had been before so it was a great experience for both of us, as usual we spent the whole time talking and laughing. Throughout our friendship we could look at each other and know what the other was thinking which would have us in hysterics. I will always remember the passion ‘C’ spoke about her children, her grandchildren and her mum. She was my go to person when I had a problem, she would always say ‘ange don’t be so hard on myself but equally she would tell me when I was being dumb. I will forever miss ‘C’’s’ smile, and her sense of humour, the sound of her laugh and her insight into the soul of others, her capacity to stay calm when I was losing the plot but most importantly I will miss her friendship and our chats and the laughter.
