The Lamp-Post

So today we all decided to meet up near to where the accident was, and spend the day together. My sister was nice enough to give me a lift there, and has been really sweet to me since she found out.

There were 14 of us, and there were STILL people missing! WE spent the morning getting ready and waiting for people to arrive. We each got a helium balloon in either green or orange (his favourite colours) so that we could release them, a sort of ‘soul releasing’ ceremony. Of course mine HAD to be the only one to pop on the way to the site; but fortunately the woman gave us an extra balloon. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t join in the ‘balloon release’ but at the same time I wanted to make sure that at least one of our balloons stayed there.

We also all put in £5 and got him two HUGE bouquets of flowers and we all wrote a card for him, so that we could say goodbye and leave a note there. After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed down there. It happened just over a bridge on a main road, and there were flowers and letters the entire way up – they even had to start a second lamp-post – once we got there, we all went silent and exchanged glances and hugs. A few of my friends started crying and we all just stood around looking at what had become of Joel. I read a couple of messages, which made me cry, and the pictures didn’t help things along. We each wrote another letter, and I left my Pikachu card as he loves Pokémon, when a few of us left and some released their balloons (some tied theirs to the post as well). It was a really emotional thing to do, which got most of us in tears instantly.

Afterwards most of us felt better, and so we went to Ell’s house to stay together. We didn’t do much there, but it was enough for us all to be there ... together. We ended up watching Nightmare before Christmas, as we all wanted to watch something light hearted that we could sing along to. We made it past the first song, when the subtitles were removed. After, we walked to Tesco’s where my sister gave me (and two others) a lift home.  So overall it was a really emotional day, but I think that it has helped us a lot in dealing with his death. I think it has finally sunk in...

- Ttyl Jack xx