Friendship at Christmas Time

I consider myself to be a very lucky guy

because, three years ago, I remade contact

with Nigel Whittaker,

who was, almost forty years ago, 

quite possibly my best friend.

I met Nigel at the old Andromeda Bookshop, on 

Summer Row, in Birmingham, England, when he was about sixteen and I was nineteen.

We were comic book collectors and our mutual passion brought us together but it was our similarity of humour, that made us good friends.

Dave Holmes, may he rest in peace, was a catalyst too, since he was looking after Andromeda's comic book basement at the time and became a friend too.

All of that happened in the mid-Seventies and we were mates, right up until I emigrated, here to Canada, in 1980.

Even that didn't put an end to things between us, 

because Nigel and his pal Jeff, came to visit me here, in the summer of 1981.

Sometime, shortly after that, we fell out of touch and despite a few searches, on-line, over the years, I had failed 

to find any trace of him. 

Then, in late December of 2015,  

I found a website operated by an artist named 

Nigel Whittaker

and something about the paintings of the artist's father, rang a bell and I decided to see if it was the same guy that I used to know.

Nigel was always a talented guy and besides turning himself into a dynamite businessman, running his own company, he continued to improve as an artist and the portrait above is an up to date example of his skill.

As it turned out, it was and he was delighted to hear from me, after so many years, which was great.

At the time, I was happy that Nigel remembered me and was willing to trade e-mails with me but I really didn't expect it to last.  Based on a couple of earlier reconnections, with people from my past, I thought I would be lucky if it lasted a couple of months.

Almost immediately, Nigel said that he was going to come and see me again and in the Fall of 2016, Nigel flew here, to Toronto and we renewed our friendship, face to face.

Amazingly, it is now almost three years since my first e-mail to him and more than two years since that landmark visit and

we are still in regular contact.

Almost every day, we exchange at least one e-mail and every couple of weeks, we have a video Skype chat

and in an incredible way, although he is seven thousand miles away, Nigel is very much my best friend again.

Thank you Nigel, for being willing to allow me back into your life and for making the effort to keep our reconnection alive.