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Day 15: Moscow: The End of Our Journey
She barked in Russian at the two if us, and signalled that we should follow. We weren’t going to argue. She took us to a platform just as a train was arriving, and indicated that we should get on.
Read MoreDay 14: Our Arrival in Moscow
The couple sitting across from us in our compartment polish off a bottle of vodka. We’re issued with a little lunchbox, with the driest looking sandwich I’ve ever seen. We’ve no vodka to wash it down so I just leave mine.
Read MoreDay 13: Studying Art St. Petersburg Style
In the restoration department one student had been working for six months already scraping layers of paint off a Russian icon to reveal an original painting, centuries old. Another large painting of Lenin was being cleaned – on the other side, a painting of Tsar Nicolas II had been revealed. It hadn’t yet been decided which portrait was the most worthy of preserving.
Read MoreDay 12: St. Petersburg
The evening was spent hunting for a restaurant with an English menu, which is no small task in Russia. After another long walk, we encountered a charming little restaurant with a fairy tale theme. And yes, an English menu.
Read MoreDay 11: Tales of Tallinn
Everything was ship shape and Bristol fashion, and the winner of the vodka drinking competition no doubt safely tucked up in his cabin for the day. I wonder what the winning prize was, no doubt a bottle of vodka.
Read MoreDay 10: The Baltic Crossing
I knew that stage two of our journey, the Swedish section, would be particularly poignant for me. Uppsala was where I lived at the time of Jane’s death, and I connect it to the early stages of my personal journey of first accepting, and later learning to cope with the reality of my sister’s passing.
Read MoreDay 9: Ein Student Aus Uppsala
I saw Jane on a couple of occasions after we returned home from our Swedish holiday together in August 2011 – helping her to move into her new student flat in Dundee one Sunday morning in September, and when she stayed over with us in Edinburgh one Saturday night in October just 10 days before she died, but Uppsala was where we spent our last real time together.
Read MoreDay 8: The North Passage
The day was characterised by train delays, reading books, snoring – for my dad at least – and, in fairness, some beautiful countryside. On Day 8 I was able to check a box on my bucket list. Well, not that I actually have one, but if I did crossing the Øresund Bridge would certainly be on it.
Read MoreDay 7 – Fact and Fiction
Our journey has essentially three main stages – revisiting places in Belgium and the Netherlands where we had spent time with Jane, revisiting Uppsala in Sweden, and then reaching our final goal of Russia where Jane had always wanted to go. The stages in between are steps in the journey, stop offs on the way, but a chance nonetheless to take in sights which I am sure Jane would have enjoyed seeing.
Read MoreDay 6: Willkommen in Deutschland
These ideas and combinations are Jane’s and Jane’s alone, but the style and influence pays homage to the great work of Vermeer which we were privileged enough to observe in Amsterdam. And, incidentally, Vermeer lived in the small city of Delft, where day 5 of our journey had ended, and day 6 began.
Read MoreDay 5 – Dutch Chic
It’s a bit quirky – Craig described it as groovy, and it is in a 1960’s hippy chic, or should that be hippy chick, sort of way. There are murals on all the walls, and on the way up the stairs these are of cavorting nudes. For a moment I thought we’d stumbled into the wrong type of establishment – well it is Holland after all!
Read MoreDay 4: Hunting for Smurfs
Little would he have known that I used to spend hours hunting for Smurfs when Jane was little. She had a collection of them, and they lived in her doll’s house. A doll’s house full of little blue men with white hats.
Read MoreDay 3: Belgium
Sitting by the main canal, the sun was baking down on us, but within minutes the sky darkened and grew ever more black and oppressive. Fork lightning flashed across the sky, and the rain came down in sheets. A glorious Summer’s day one minute, the next all the tourist were huddled together under awnings.
Read MoreDay 2: Send off from the Russian Consul General, Shona Robison MSP and Roderick Campbell MSP
We then met with Shona Robison MSP for Dundee East and Roderick Campbell MSP for North East Fife in the beautiful setting of the Scottish Parliament’s garden lobby. Many thanks to both Shona and Roderick for their kind words and for meeting with us on the usual busy Thursday, what with First Minister’s Questions and all.
Read MoreDay 1: Leaving – by Craig Kelly
It’s been an odd day. It started with a bacon sandwich and a kilt. One eaten, the other worn. Followed by an adventure around Duncan of Jordanstone with two journalists and a member of staff in desperate search for a suitable art studio to record an interview.
Read MoreLost opportunities, lost possibilities; chances we can never get back – by Julie Ford
As I lie at night, trying to get to sleep, I sometimes think back to that cold October evening. I can still see Craig’s face as he appeared at his Grandparent’s living room door after receiving the phone call from…
Read MoreA Graduation Story – by Karen Kelly
Attending Jane’s graduation is something I felt as a mother I had to do. Although heart breaking and extremely difficult, I felt Jane would have wanted me to be there to collect her degree on her behalf. The morning was…
Read MoreThe world is a lesser place without Jane: Gary Cocker’s reflections
The growing ubiquity of technology in 21st century lives is making our world seem smaller, and helps to keep us connected to those in different cities or even countries. However, it never occurred to me until October 2011 that technology…
Read MoreFragments of Images: some thoughts from Jane’s brother, Craig
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength” These are the words carved into Jane’s headstone. Twelve simple words that, in my opinion, capture Jane’s character. I sometimes wonder what Jane would make of this quote….
Read MoreTribute from Jane’s Mum
I will never forget that dark windy October evening. As I walked towards my door in answer to the bell, I could see two dark figures through the glass. I opened the door. Two police officers, a man in plain clothes and a woman in full uniform, stood with grim expressions on their faces.
Read MoreTribute from Jane’s father
Every father of a grown up daughter inevitably still thinks of her as their little girl, and I am no different, and to have lost my little girl is so painful.
Read MoreTribute from Gran and Grandad Kelly
For the first 17 years of her life she was our only granddaughter. She had the sweetest, kindest and most gracious nature and saw goodness in everyone. Perhaps she too readily trusted people and this was to cost her- her life.
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Thoughts and Memories – by Jane’s step-mum, Lorna Kelly
Posted on by Julie Ford
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I “do” words for a living, but these are among the hardest I’ve ever had to write. No words can even begin to explain what losing Jane has meant to us all. It has affected every aspect of our lives…
Read MoreCategory: Comment Pieces Tags: Comment Pieces, Jane Kelly, Journey for Jane, Lorna Kelly