Mum rang me on Tuesday to break the news, and since then, my brain and heart have been in bits. I just cannot, cannot comprehend that someone so beautiful, so funny, so full of love and pride in her 3 gorgeous girls, is gone.
The first time I met Dai, Brian had brought her and some friends across to Sligo. We ended up out in Toffs that night, and within a few minutes of meeting her, I felt I'd known her forever. Her Welsh accent made pronunciations of everything Sligonian sound fantastically musical, her grin and laugh were contagious, and I felt like her and Bri were much more than a match, they were soulmates-two people who complimented, who perfected, who were two parts coming together to make a whole....who just....worked. Just talking with her that night was enough to cement her in my mind as Brian's other half, the one that complimented and matched him, the one who felt like she'd been in our lives forever, even if we'd only met a few hours previous. To me, in hollywood/disney/richard curtis movie type visions, she was "the one" for Bri. C'mon, even their names suggested it- Bri & Dai? Dai and Bri? they even rhymed together for godssake!!Their wedding, a year and a bit later was beautiful, a day where the happy tears flowed, from the moment she walked down the aisle, to the grin on Brian's face. The happiness of that day, of the familial fun, kind, caring, loving vibe is one that will always stay with me-from the kids running around in Halloween costumes to the sky lanterns, to Dai's Uncle's kilt dancing and the feeling that two families were becoming one, that old friends and new friends came together to see two best friends becoming one. I can honestly say that my face hurt from grinning so much that day!
As time passed, Mr & Mrs Fitz became Family Fitz, with Molly Mai, then Olwyn and Peggy. Each new arrival was anticipated with eager love and joy, and facebook was regularly updated with pictures of the newest little sister, and big sisters taking up big sisterly duties. That's both the good and bad thing about Facebook-you can see how people are doing without physically checking in with them....Dianne's posts ranged from the heartfelt to the hilarious, from Molly Mai's doodles and quotes (her recent berating the Xbox when it wouldn't do what Daddy said comes to mind!) to Dai's ever changing hair colour, her love for Family Fitz shone through every sentence.
Her most recent platinum blonde was stunning and it's incomprehensible to me that she's gone, that I won't log in to facebook to see a new hair colour, or a random quote from her about the girls or Bri. The best thing about those updates was that I could hear her voice saying those words everytime. The Welsh accent is rather fantastic, and I say that knowing full well that half the world loves the Irish accent....but for me, the melody that a Welsh accent can somehow muster in two syllables is both beautiful and heart-warming.
The only consolation I can take from Dai's sudden departure is that she was happy with her life, with her soulmate Bri, with her gorgeous daughters. She was the most natural of mothers, the most caring of people to family, to friends, and the outpouring of grief, even from those who only met her once, shows just how much of an impact she made on people in life.
In a world so full of negativity, so full of talk of recession and depression and global warming with no happiness in sight, Dai's positivity, her natural beauty and happiness that she exuded in her everyday chat, her facebook post, in her texts, and most importantly, her happiness and love that oozed through her family, simply in her everyday existence....that positivity was a gift to us all, and it's something I know I will try and take forward with me everyday from now on.
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