The story of us!!!

Sit down, and grab a glass of Sauvingnon, this is a long one....

Hollie and I met half way through our first year at high school. We were part of a large group of girls who all started to hang out together. I wouldnt have said Hol and I were inseparable, but we were mates, we got along well with each other, and had similar interests.
Cut to year 8, and we started having lessons together, with us both being a 'Williams' we were quite often sat next to each other. And there started the greatest friendship.
We realised we had a lot more in common than we first thought. I started going for sleepovers at hers, and we would hang out together at the weekend.
I loved going to her house. Jane was always so welcoming to Hol, and Jim's friends, and more importantly, the larder was always full of dead dog!!
Sleepovers were always fun. We would end up in the living room watching movies. If it wasn't beaches we were watching, we would stick on a horror and trying to scare poor Jim. I'll always remember watching chuckie with him, and pulling the arm chair he was sat on, making him run around the house screaming! Sorry Jiminy 😘
We carried on being good friends well into year 9, but towards the end of the year things started to change. We developed separate interests. Hollie started hanging around with a few older people. She started dating one of these guys - I didn't like him all that much, he had taken my best friend, and more importantly, he was far too old for her!!  Hollies relationship with this lad soon ended - although that wasn't the last we would see of him 😉

Our friendship moved on and got stronger. Hollies 16th birthday party always makes me laugh. I was so excited, we were finally growing up, she was sweet 16, and Jane had allowed us to bring alcohol to the party - no spirits though!! Anyway, after a few too many ciders, I decided it would be a great idea to pop a party popper over her head, however it backfired, and I popped it right in her face!! Soz Hol 🤦‍♀️🤣

After our GSCEs Hollie moved on to Hereford art college, while I stayed at the chase 6th form. I kind of figured that this would be the end of our friendship, we were moving on from each other, gaining other friends, and moving in different circles. How wrong could I be... she was stuck with me, I wasn't giving her up that easily!! We continued our friendship. Still seeing each other at weekends, and by this time mobile phones had been invented - god help our phone bills!! One Christmas we both had half days on the last day of term, so Hol got the train back to Malvern, I met her, and we joined other friends from the chase at the old Calvary Arms pub. We had a few afternoon drinks and headed back to hols to get ready for going out that night. When we got home, we decided to give Jane a big surprise, she worked so hard during the days, and then was always home to cook tea and look after Jim and Hol. She deserved a nice surprise. We decided to decorate the Christmas tree, so that when she got back from work, the house would be all lovely and festive. The tree looked amazing, full of baubles and trinkets, and other classy decorations. So after we had decorated, off we went to the pub. We got back a few hours later to find Jane sat in her chair, the tree on the floor surrounded by smashed decorations and baubles. Our first thought was that Tate and Lyle had climbed the tree and knocked it over. Nope. Drunk Sian and Hollie had only decorated the front of the tree. Completely forgetting the sides and back. The tree was top heavy and toppled over. We spent the next half hour sweeping up broken glass baubles 🤦‍♀️


By the time we were 18, nights out at olivers and the lighthouse became the norm. One night I remember us walking back to Hols house after the lighthouse and we couldn't get in the door. We figured Jane had forgotten about us and locked the door. So, as any drunk 18 year olds would do, we decided to sleep on the door step! we leant against the door, getting comfy and then Jane appeared. As she opened the door, we fell through it!! Whoops!!

After college, Hollie took the next step and decided to go to uni - in Exeter, the other side of the world!! On one of her last days before leaving, we all went to the red lion, while there, some of the people we were with decided to walk across the hills to go to the Wyche to play pool. I had heels on. I was not amused, only for Hollie Would I trapse across the hills in heels!!
Hollie left Exeter after a year - clearly she missed me too much!!
I remember Jane meeting the lovely Roberto. Jane was a little nervous in going to the RSRE to meet Rob, so on a few occasions, Hol and I would go with her for moral support! After a few months of being back from Uni, Hol rang me one evening. She'd had all this freedom being at uni that she didn't really want to be 22 and living at home, would I be up for getting a house with her. Stupid question. Living with my best friend, what a great idea. And so, Party Central was formed!

The 2 and a half years spent living with Hollie were some of the best years. Yes she had to act like my mother at times, teaching me how to control my spending, how to cook, how to change a light bulb. Our house became the meeting point for all our friends. They would all come round before nights out, and quite often someone would be staying over as well. But in the times when it was just Hol and I, we would sit gossiping about boys, work, and life and would always be putting the world to rights over a bottle of pinot - we couldn't afford sauvingnon at the time 😉
We had our first girls holiday in Turkey- oh the mighty white one 😉🤣 being driven around by curly while he blasted nasty girl out of his little Renault!! We got held hostage in a bar because we couldn't afford to pay our bill, que Curly coming to the rescue and saving our bacon!!

During the 2nd year of us living together Hol went out with Katie, I had work the next day so stayed home. As usual I got woken up around 3am with Hollie returning, bringing with her whichever waif and stray was staying that night. Only this time I heard a man's voice!! Aye aye, she'd brought a bloke home, fair play!! I woke up the next morning, and there were no signs that he had stayed over, so didn't think any more about it, and off I went to work! Hol rang me when I was on lunch to tell me she had met someone. The same lad she had dated back in yr 9, that had caused all that trouble!! She'd only brought Tim Bloody Hill home with her. I was not happy. Especially when she said he was coming over that night for a drink. Great!! Well, that night He turned up with a curry. He clearly knew the way to my heart!! How could I hate someone that came armed with my favourite!!
Well, Timmy practically moved in with us, and we had the best time. A year later, when he told me he'd bought a ring, and was planning on proposing on their holiday to the Maldives, I couldn't have been happier. They were perfect together, I'd found someone who loved my best friend as much as I did, and I knew then, she would be looked after forever.

And then the shock announcement. Shortly after their return from the Maldives, Hollie sat me down to tell me her and Tim were planning on getting their own house - I was over the moon, the 3 of us would be moving into a house of our own. Amazing. What a plank. Of course they didn't mean I was moving with them - they wanted their own house with privacy of course. Idiot!

And so, on January the 8th 2008 Party Central was over! Hol and Tim moved into Alexandra Lane, and I move back home with my parents - although not for long, thankfully!!
I continued to spend a fair amount of time at Hol and Tim's - they might as well of just let me move in with them 😉

On September the 28th 2013 Tim finally made an honest woman of Hol. They got married. I was so proud of my best friend that day, it was an honour to walk behind her as her bridesmaid, and watch her say her vows to Timmy.

For their first anniversary we booked to go to France, just the 4 of us. Unfortunately shortly before we were due to go her dad passed away. Of course she couldn't leave Jim at this point. I emailed the host of the place we were staying, asking if we could add a few extra people to the booking. They agreed, and Jim and his 2 friends joined our holiday. It was a cracking week with lots of wine, good food, and a lot of laughs. How could we forget Bambury asleep with a pizza box on his head, shouting out the train time in his sleep. Or Jim having mental breakdown at the train station trying to work out the vending machine.

As the years have gone on, and huge life events occurred, one thing has always remained constant in my life. Hollie. No matter what was happening, she was there. I took my first pregnancy test with her as I was petrified to do it alone, it was positive. When I went into labour, Hol was the first to know, and when Harry was born, Hollie was the first to meet him. The same when I fell pregnant a second time, although I was brave enough to do the test alone this time. By accident, she even knew I was in labour before Ian!! H and Hospital were next to each other in my phone book, and I accidentally rang her instead!! 🤦‍♀️
It was no great surprise, that when my 2nd child turned out to be a girl, that she would be named after my best friend. The woman who I trust with my life. And so Lily Hollie Evans was born!!
As it was during covid, Hollie had to wait a whole 4 days before she could meet Lily.

The next year was the toughest Hollie had faced. The loss of her beloved cousin Paige. This hit Hol hard. It was one of the only times, other than when Phil died, that I hadn't been able to fix things, or make it better for her. I struggled with how to be around her, and she struggled to open up to me. We drifted apart. I had a newborn, she was grieving. We were still there for each other, but things had changed. We didn't see or speak to each other as often, however we were still always texting. I was struggling raising a baby in post covid times. I wasn't wanting to go out as often as I had.

And then 2023 hit. The worst year. Of course she would ring me to say she wasn't well. Of course I dropped everything to visit her in hospital. And then she told me the worst news. Cancer. But cancer underestimated my best friend. She wasn't gunna let some stupid little tumor stop her. In typical Hollie fashion, she took this in her stride and faced things head on. Yes she had her down moments. She cried. She hated this crap. But, she picked herself up. Brushed herself off, and got on with it. Always living life to the best. She still worked, we did lunch, we went out. We started doing lunch Thursdays, I'd take her a subway, and Lil and I would sit with her, and we would gossip, and talk crap, putting the world to rights. Just like the old party Central days.

As with any friendship, we had our ups and downs, but throughout the last 29 years, I have always known who to call, and where to go in my time of need, and vice versa. She is my best friend. Nothing has changed that. She will always be my best friend. She is still here, her memory lives on in me and the girls, in Timmy, Jane, Jim and Nikki, and In little Harry, and Lily and of course her P, Parker. She is with all of us. Always. We may not be able to see her, but she is always here. Love you H, Always and forever.

"Here's to the ones that we got
Cheers to the wish you were here, but you're not
'Cause the drinks bring back all the memories
Of everything we've been through
Toast to the ones here today
Toast to the ones that we lost on the way
'Cause the drinks bring back all the memories
And the memories bring back, memories bring back you"/data/user/0/com.samsung.android.app.notes/files/clipdata/clipdata_bodytext_231022_190114_560.sdocx