On the 11th January 2012 it would have been my dearest friend Tony's 50th Birthday. Words are not enough to express the pain that I feel that he is no longer in my life. So I'm not going to bother cause only I know how I feel about this man. However, I do want to tell you about the man that I am in total awe of.
Tony was a reporter for an oil magazine or he had something to do with oil. To be honest I didn't really understand what he did but it was something to with business and oil was involved too and he was bloody good at it. He was an Italian American. A real gangster type of bloke to look at but he had a heart of solid gold. He would always make time for the people he loved and I was one of the lucky ones. He used to make me laugh so much, he had my kind of wit and sense of humour together with the intellect to hold fascinating conversations about everything. I would listen to him for hours. I am not really into looks, I'm no oil painting myself, so the mind and wit of a man is a real turn on for me, and Tony had it in abundance. I suppose that was the reason why we connected. He was divorced and has two gorgeous kids. I hear from them every now and then but not much, i don't think they really approved of their dad being "friends" with a girl nearly half his age. It was never going to work as a relationship because of the distance mainly but we kept in touch because we always had a spark. He was the first one that I told when John proposed, apart from family of course, and he was supposed to make it to the wedding but had to be in the Sudan on some big thing, so never made it.
Tony got me. Not many people have the pleasure of saying that they get me, but Tony was one of them. He understood my ways and saw through the smiles when I wasn't at my best. He would listen without judgement, no preconceptions, he was just Tony and I was me.
The day before Tony died we had been chatting on MSN about life. We were planning for me and John to go over and see him as John had never met him and I thought it was about time he met the other man in my life. We talked until late. He lived in New Jersey and his company had offices in New Jersey and in New York. For some reason he went to New York, he shouldn't have been there. It should have been his day in the New Jersey office. I was at work in Reading. It was lunchtime and news came across that there had been a plane go into one of the towers. We watched it unfold at work. I phoned Tony's New Jersey number and got no answer but didn't assume the worst. Until I had a telephone call from Kate, Tony's daughter. She told me Tony was in New York. From that moment my world crumbled. Tony died in the Second Tower on the 09 September 2001. There are 2 dates in the calender year that I am at my lowest point, the 09 September and the 11 January.
I miss Tony, I will always him. No one can bring him back but I was luckily enough to know him and for that I am eternally grateful.
This is my dedication to him and to all those that died on that fateful day. Forever in our hearts.
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