I planned to stop at a cafe for lunch, as I walked I checked the route on google maps, there weren't many options. I found one in Middleton, South Leeds which was open and went in. There were 4 men sitting around one table in a corner and along the back wall a big fridge with different sandwich fillings and a chalkboard full of hot and cold options. One of the men jokingly said to me "have you come far?" As I took my bag off I replied "yes actually I've walked from Brighton!" by this point a couple of the staff had come out from the kitchen and he said to them "I'll get hers!" and then to me "what are you having?" I ordered a sandwich and tea and went to the loo. I asked if I could sit with them and they pulled up a chair and asked me lots of questions, including a common one - have I had to walk on roads? It gives me the perfect opportunity to talk about Slow Ways and explain how most of my journey has been on footpaths! They were roofers on a lunch break in their regular cafe and hadn't expected to meet someone who had walked almost 300 miles to get there. When I told them I was walking in memory of my friend they were very moved, and then spoke about friends, young local lads they knew who had died, 2 of them by suicide, and the tragedy of this.
3 of the staff had come out from the kitchen to join in the conversation and told me about Kyle a man from down the road who today had arrived in Fort William after walking from Leeds about 3 weeks ago, and tomorrow would reach the summit of Ben Nevis and complete his fundraising challenge. They'd been following his journey on tiktok and we all thought it was amazing that both of us had been walking at the same time for personal reasons close to our hearts and that we'd finish on the same day. It made me wonder how many people are out there doing something like this, and I loved thinking about it as I continued on my way. My lunch companions had to get back to work, waving goodbye they wished me luck for my final miles and said they would give me a good deal if I ever needed a roof doing! Unfortunately I couldn't remember anyone's name at this point, they'd introduced themselves quickly, but everyone in the cafe had learnt my name within a few seconds and it was so nice and felt very Yorkshire!
I'd done about half of my 11 miles and needed to continue East of Leeds city centre where I'd get to Ashleigh's house, my last night stop of this journey. It was also the final few miles I'd be carrying my big rucksack, as tomorrow it would be transported to Bradford for me! As the sun started to lower in the sky, the light was beautiful and I enjoyed looking at the colours on the horizon, and watched my shadow move along the walls.
I took my time and walked through a park where I sat on a bench overlooking some kids playing football. I felt a strong sense of peace, underlied with sadness, and a realisation that this walk and all the thinking and talking about Ro that I've done have made me appreciate even more than I already did, who he was and what he brought to my life and to so many others, and that is a beautiful thing.
With this feeling of love and gratitude I arrived in good time to the home of Ashleigh, a close friend of Ro's, and her son Bradie. It felt special to be there as it was somewhere Ro had spent time at parties and social gatherings. Ashleigh and I knew of each other through Ro but it's only since his death we've spent time together and we both agree he'd be happy about that. He'd been to Ashleigh's baby shower in 2022 and had travelled the furthest of anyone to be there, he wouldn't have missed it.
I feel like I should say at this point that if Ro was introducing himself he would say "I'm Rimoaine" and that's how Ashleigh knows him as do his family and lots of other friends. At some point in our friendship I started calling him Ro as an affectionate name that many of his Bradford friends also use. I had asked him if he was ok with it and he was. The community that Ro was part of in Brighton has now moved to The Wirral due to Woody's role as a Methodist minister and they have named their new place Rimoaine House, a beautiful tribute, meaning he will always be talked about and remembered.
There was a time in our first year of uni that Lee, one of the 12 in our halls of residence block, had his 21st birthday and invited us all to a party in his home town of Dudley. On meeting Lee's family, Ro thought it would be funny to introduce himself as Jim and for that weekend (and a lot of the rest of the year back in halls) that's what everyone called him! Remembering this reminded me of Ro's playfulness and in one of his customer service phone jobs he decided to entertain himself and his colleagues by answering the call in a Liverpudlian accent, it was all going well until he realised exactly how much help this customer needed and the call was going to be a long one! In the end he had to keep the accent going for around 40 minutes. He learnt his lesson, made everyone laugh and never did accents at work again!
Ashleigh and Rimoaine met in a local theatre company called Armley People's Theatre. Ro had successfully auditioned for the Leeds Playhouse community cast to be part of a production of Grapes of Wrath in 2017. He really enjoyed performing and finding a channel for his creativity. He continued to be part of the community cast in Searching For The Heart Of Leeds and made friends among his fellow actors. Tim invited him to join APT and had a specific role in mind for their upcoming production - Bill Sykes in Oliver! Ashleigh was also performing and they quickly became great friends, continuing to be part of productions as well as partying together with others from the group! They stayed in touch and continued to meet up when Ro moved down South. Before Ro left they were given the roles of King and Queen of the fairies in the Fairytale of Armley production which I sadly didn't get to see but heard a lot about!
I remember rehearsing lines with Ro for Bill Sykes, he was nervous about the role especially as he had a solo, but he worked incredibly hard to deliver an amazing performance. I was so proud of him, he absolutely smashed it, the whole musical was fantastic, full of local actors, young and old, performing to packed audiences each night in a converted church, now a performance space - Interplay in Armley. It was a joy to watch and I'll never forget everyone, cast and audience singing along to consider yourself. There was another memorable moment - Ro fully in character as a scary, mean Bill Sykes, the polar opposite to who he actually was, made a child in the audience cry. He continued in role but as soon as the interval arrived he rushed over to the child to smile, say hello and show how friendly he really was!
A few days ago Ashleigh had messaged to ask if I'd like to go with her this evening to another community performance of Oliver by a different company in the same space in Armley. I was touched by the thoughtfulness of her invitation and felt that being back where I'd loved watching Ro as a steampunk Bill Skyes would be a comfort, perhaps tinged with sadness, and nostalgia for the good times spent in Leeds, but important to remember being in that space with him in 2018. Some kind of full circle, or maybe a different shape but coming back to a place I'd been before, acknowledging everything has changed, yet some things remain the same, I guess a definition of time, and life.
Ashleigh and I arrived just in time to take our seats and watch the performance, which was a very different and creative spin on Oliver! There was a nice link in that Demi who had played Oliver alongside Ro and Ashleigh, was this time playing Artful Dodger. And so in case you missed it, here is Ro performing as Bill Sykes singing 'My Name" Rimoaine Boothe as Bill Sykes