'When Great Trees Fall' By Maya Angelou is all I can lean on right now….Dedicated to my dearest friend Celine Garvey x
I am beyond devastated to just have heard the terrible news that my beautiful friend & one of the brightest lights I know Celine Garvey has passed away. I can only imagine what her beautiful family & close circle of inner friends are feeling at this time - it’s beyond words & this loss I just cannot explain. So many people loved her. So many people wished it wasn’t her that the cross had fallen on but she carried it like the warrior we all knew her to be. She was so young. She was my age. She was the best mother to her beautiful daughter Elanor. She was a friend to everyone in the arts and to everyone she met, she wrapped her arms around and we all knew how lucky we were that Celine was one of our biggest and brightest supporters in life.
No matter what your idea was, Celine was someone we all knew would support us. She was unconditional with her love, her generous spirit and her belief to see the good in the world.
The most amazing thing about Celine was that she was actually the good we all needed in the world and while she was looking for it in all of us, we all knew it was her that shone the brightest.
Blessed to have found you on this earth Celine & I know Granny Nancy will be devastated to see you coming through the gates of heaven but she will hug & mind you for us all💔
I will be forever sad that Celine Garvey is not in this world no more 💔
I will be forever sad that little Elanor didn’t get long enough with you and for your mam, your siblings and your huge array of friends who will be forever without your laughter, your smile and your joyful spirit. I will keep them all in my prayers night, noon and morning forever more.
Your battle is over Celine. You fought the good fight, you finished the race, you kept the faith!
God love all who suffer grief when losing someone they love at such a young age & in such a shocking way. Celine had being undergoing treatment for her cancer for the last year and back in January, the treatment stopped working & the tumour returned. She had pain all the way through. She had worries and aches. She had health complications like nobody else I knew had but she kept the faith.
When her friends and loved ones first heard she was sick, they started fundraising. The amazing Kathleen Smith led the charge and money from every side started to pour in. Over 40,000 euro sits in the gofundme account which was finally being drawn down as Celine had begun new treatment in recent weeks which was going to cost 14,000 euro per month. I was in contact with Celine on the 7th of April and on the 14th of April, poor Celine suffered a stroke and just a few hours ago, she left this world for the next. Life is so cruel and it is this sort of darkness, this sort of suffering, this sort of terrible story is the reason why I am writing these words right now. Celine was against the odds since her diagnosis last March and she never ever gave up, she never ever complained and she never ever let the darkness take away her light. She is the reason I write. She is the light I can believe in because she lived it and even when darkness came knocking, she kept shining.
Celine always supported me in every way and when I became a writer after Gran passed, she was so proud of me and it meant so much to me. The world is full of people dragging you down, taking away your joy and many jealous souls but Celine Garvey was the antidote to all those. If Celine said you were brilliant, you could really believe it because she meant it with all her heart and she had worked the industry for so long, she knew the difference between the gifted and the chancer.
Your time was short Celine but you left an incredible mark on all our lives.
I will never forget you as I know so many will feel the same. Today darkness falls on us all as we hear this terrible news but you Celine Garvey showed us all how to live life, showed us all how to face the dark and showed us all the beauty that lies in those who shine brightest when heavy times fall.
Forever an inspiration and also a heart I will never forget.
I am honoured to have known you and so sad to have lost you but one day we will meet again beyond the sun, beyond the rainbows and beyond the beautiful moon that we loved so much.
I will know look up to the stars each night knowing you are looking down x
Thank you Substack, Facebook Family and friends for all your prayers for my friend, I know Celine would have been so grateful. She loved being part of the FB family, she was the day I started the community so I know your prayers would have meant everything to her. And if you might now pray for her heartbroken family and friends, I know that would mean so much.
Lou x
I will now read a poem I feel drawn to at this moment as I know Celine loved poetry and I think this fits everything I’m trying to say:
‘When Great Trees Fall ‘By Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of
dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
Beautiful tribute to Celine. Lou I am so sad & sorry for the loss of your beautiful friend 🧡 Celine obviously thought the absolute world of your friendship to her too Lou. With everything she had been through on that particular day in late 2023 she still made it to the intimate zoom special that evening. Celine made an everlasting impression that night,what a warrior, what an inspiration, what a mum, & what an incredible good, kind giving human to so many. Be gentle on yourself Lou as the pain in your heart must be horrendous 💛 💛💛
🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻
Heartfelt compassion and empathy such as yours resonates with all who knew and loved Celine for who she was.
My sincere condolences to little Elenor and to all her family.
It truly is the ones left behind who hold dear in their hearts the memories, the absence, the unending love for their dearly departed. May they be comforted abundantly in their sorrow, may
Celine rest in heavenly peace. 🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻🙏🫶🏻🙏