Today, 23 April 2022, those who love Kev are gathered in Kent to celebrate Thanksgiving for him. I am geographically far from Crochkam Hill, but I am in spirit with Kev and with Min, and Claudia and Ilsa and all those who love him. Thank you, Kev, for all these years of friendship, thank you for what you brought to my life, for showing us how to celebrate each moment of life, always smiling. It’s my mother who introduced you to me through a text about your passion for the Pyrenees, your « spiritual home »,  in the journal called Pyrénées; you left this world, on 10 December, my mother’s birthday… My latest mountain walk with you and your wonderful wife Min, and Michel, my childhood friend, was also the same walk as the last one made by my father, to the Lac de Besiberri. You wove threads between all those who met you, you taught us to see connections and love all the world, from your beloved family and your neighboring friends to your Sherpa friends at the other end of the world or to an unknown walker met on a path;  you loved the world from the tiniest blade of grass to the sublime Himalayas, from the hardly visible caterpillar hanging from a tree and whom you perceived one day while walking in your beautiful green countryside, to the friendly badger met on your way home, to  the sweet lamb or the izard drinking in the stream. This morning when waking up, I read your text about the nightingale singing in the mountains, I listened to the nightingale with you and all those who are with you now, today and forever. Thank you, Kev, for the gift of your life and the gift of your friendship. You’ll go on guiding us through your words, written or remembered, you will always be our guide, wherever you are. Today it is raining in Toulouse, and I think about your words: « The sun is still shining », and I smile to life as you want us to do. And I think of you, Min, and Claudia and Ilsa. When we listen to a bird, Kev will listen to it with us. Thank you, Kev.

Françoise, Toulouse, France