Spirit of Place: Derby - In Memory of Natalie

To Derby for one of my little sorties today. I've never been there before: once I penetrated far enough (yes, the sexual imagery is deliberate) it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be when I got there. The city has been well & truly bollocksed up by the building of the Westfield Centre, so that that is what you see rather than the prettier old bit.
On the way from the station to what they call the 'Cathedral Quarter' you have to pass a tiny park with benches in. The leaving of flowers at the site of a death, usually by the side of a road, is a wholly modern phenomenon, one studied by the Folklore Society. I've never before seen one of those shrines on a park bench, & when I got there it was both too early (around 11) for the populace of Derby to be awake, & too wet to read the cards on the tributes. On the way back to the station there was a man sitting on the pavement asking people for money, so I asked him who it was for. It was for a woman called Natalie, who was found dead, from drugs, around 4 weeks ago in her nearby flat. The shrine was on the bench because she had sat there every day for about the past decade. When the weather warms up & his hands work he's going to paint her a permanent memorial. Even the council workers had deferred the planned removal of those benches out of respect for Natalie.
He spoke movingly, almost in tears, of how he was missing her. She used to help him when he went to the jobcentre & found things difficult. Did he ask me for money? You bet he didn't. Respect is worth more than money to anyone. Those who live on the (h)edge recognise others who do, & witches particularly so. I shook his hand to make a connection while mentally giving him the blessing of the witch.
Otherwise Derby & my visit were unremarkable. I found the DVD of Guesthouse Paradiso & series 1 of The Professionals, both of which I've been looking for for ages. Oh, the answer to the inevitable question about The Professionals is: Bodie for me. I don't like Doyle's curly hair, & somehow Bodie is harder. I just feel he wouldn't take no for an answer...
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