Just a thought 07 May 2009
Here is a touching story, which I hope those involved won’t mind me sharing.

When I was at Art School, we went on a trip to Prague in 1988, or was it 1989, I can’t remember. To cut a long story short, I got stuck in an elevator with a girl from London, Julia Hember was her name. We instantly became good friends, and corresponded and met up throughout my time at artschool, but unfortunately lost touch in 1995 when I lost her address. The last time I spoke to her when I was living in Mallorca in 2001, where I learned she had taken up diving and was a professional photographer. As things often happen, I lost her details again, and when I tried to catch up again in 2007, all I found was one of her photos, a portrait of Jeffrey Barnard in the national Portrait gallery. The author of the photo was listed as Julia Hember, 1970 – 2003.
Sadly, Julia died in 2003 from what I now know was Leukaemia. It upset me to think that my friend from art school had died without my knowing, particularly Julia, who I used to talk long into the night about art, life and the world, Julia, whom I had visited in London and at her home near Bath where we collaborated on a painting of her grandfather. In her memory, I painted two pictures, one of shadows falling across leaves, called “Julia Hember, I remember the light through your hair was like autumn leaves” and the other, a portrait from memory of her. Both of these paintings you will find on my website. Painting them helped me come to terms with her death, and helped me preserve the memory of my friend.
I hoped, that perhaps one day one of her friends or family might one day see them on the internet and be comforted to know that she is not forgotten, and lives on as part of my life through her portrait which now hangs in my hallway, encouraging me to keep painting. It is a lovely thought that the people we touch and influence in our lives can influence so many others after we have gone.
Yesterday, I received a touching email from Mary, Julia’s mother who asked how it came about that I had a portrait of Julia and I immediately replied with the story above, and some memories of her, her art and her influence on mine. As a memorial to Julia, the family have planted a wood in her name.
What a beautiful and fitting tribute, for a beautiful and inspiring woman and it is a memorial to her that I am sure she would have approved of immensely. I remember having a conversation with her in Brixton, London, walking down electric avenue, about all the statues in the city. She said to me ( and I am paraphrasing it to the best of my memory )“The true mark of a life well lived is not the grandeur of the monument or the expense of the memorial as they are simply things built by people which will crumble with time. If you can touch someone’s life, influence it for the better, or plant the seed of an idea which helps them grow, that is immortality, that is a far better legacy than any bronze statue”, somehow, planting a growing, living wood in her name couldn’t have been any more perfect and fitting a tribute to her memory.
Emily Dickinson wrote, “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”
Julia touched my life and influenced it for the better, she planted the seed in me to work as an artist, to keep at it regardless, and in that way I will never forget my friend, nor will she ever be forgotten as part of her influence on me, her encouragement and her determination must be present in all my artworks, how can it not be.
This is for you Julia, still miss you.
Derek