Helen and I first met when I came to work at Wood MacKenzie. And that's also where she met Martin, except he was just a voice on the phone to start with. The 'bluebuttons' in London collected stock prices and phoned us in Edinburgh to give us the list. Woe betide anyone who answered the phone when Martin was giving the list and didn't immediately pass him over to Helen. And so began a love story that lasted over 45 years. I can still remember when Helen set off for London to finally meet him, asking us if we thought she was mad and us agreeing she probably was but go for it anyway!

I was at the wedding in the church just along from where I now live and when she moved to London we stayed in touch by letter - remember those days before emails etc? I so wish I'd kept them. My job then started to involve visits to clients in London and we'd meet in the City.

I wrote to tell her I was expecting my first child and she phoned me a few days later to say so was she. And so our lives moved in parallel, our girls became friends too. We'd meet when we could, on one memorable occasion in Florida when we both happened to be there. This was before mobile phones and we took each others girls in different cars with a vague plan to meet at a shopping mall and then couldn't find each other!

We planned to go to Vegas for her 50th. We'd chosen the hotel - the Belaggio - trip to the Grand Canyon etc but sadly she wasn't well enough to go but it didn't stop us talking about going when she was better. We planned for her to come Scotland but NHS systems differ in our countries and that trip didn't happen either.

I had my flights booked to come see her the week before the first lockdown. We decided I probably shouldn't but as soon as we were allowed I'd be there. We never foresaw that it wouldn't happen.......

She was my best friend and I'll miss her forever.

Christine