Dear Claire, we were friends at school, and like everyone else I recall your wry humour with a smile.   As a teenager, during the time when we were close, it amused you to refer to your (bearded) dad as "the wer-wolf!"  In those days you used to help out at your father's hockey club, when they played at weekends.   I remember how committed you were to the World Wildlife Fund, and how important in your life was your first dog, your beloved collie Cromwell.   You got to be a school librarian in the 6th form, as it was well known that was your ambition.   It was about that age when you started wearing glasses for the first time.   You were present at my baptism (in our late teens), and later visited the Taize community, as your faith increased in significance for you.
We kept in touch by letter during our student years in different parts of the country, and I came to your wedding in the Hughenden valley.   We both acquired new friends at university, and moved away from the area where we grew up.
As things have turned out, after one visit to you and Charles in your first married home, I have not managed to see or speak to you in person again in all the time since; though we have just about kept in touch by cards/letters at Christmas.   So we have remained as distant old friends, as we have got on with our lives.
I tried phoning you once during this Covid era, but didn't get through then.   (Little did I know it might have been my last chance to have a chat and hear your voice after so many years.)   You even sent me a signed Christmas card in December 2021, written yourself, and with no hint of anything amiss – except that you did not add any news this time.
It seems to me that you have led a very stable, grounded, useful, and fulfilled life, which not all of us achieve, and that you have gained and retained the affection of many.   Binky, I hope you have enjoyed it all.                                                                              Claire Bland