The Weatherman

Dedication

When this was first written, I was very close to a girl who really loved writing things with me. Not long after I finished, the two of us grew apart because she started to find new friends. A lot of her views changed and we didn't agree on much anymore, so it was only natural that our friendship faded over time.

Three years have passed (I think) since I finished the work and came to the end of the friendship which inspired it, and I take my writing very seriously now (although none of it can be found online). I keep The Weatherman on Wattpad because I think that's where it belongs. My style, inspiration, tone and ideas have all changed completely since the end of this story, but as the first real finished piece of writing I ever completely finished, I've kept The Weatherman in the back of my mind, much like a traveller always thinks of home. Many new friendships have come and gone since the inception of The Young Woman and The Tall Man and my most loveable character, The Weatherman, and I remember them all as I change and develop with each new day.

Remembering these friendships is what brings me to add this final part to The Weatherman. The friendship that helped me to write the story, supporting me through the inspiration to the final kiss from The Young Woman was truly brought to a permanent end recently as my once bright and inspirational writing partner passed away after struggling with mental illness and thoughts of suicide.

Since I was given the news, which was hard to believe at first despite not having been close to her for so long, I've been thinking a lot about death and depression, and where emotions go when people pass away. I've always found it hard to deal with adult emotions (I'm now 19), so I don't tend to take serious situations very well. As a result, I've been unable to forget images of the past friendship that brought me so much joy and inspiration, and I've struggled with trying to find ways to move on from the loss suffered by a much younger self.

While writing a new story that I intend to take very seriously, I wanted to add an allusion to The Weatherman because of its being my literary origin, and I thought back to the night that inspired me to write it. When I first found myself staring out my parents' kitchen window into the rain to see a sad, dishevelled man waiting alone, I immediately knew who he was and what he did, so I decided to write his story. I told my friend and she insisted that I had to write about him so she could find out who he was. Months followed when we would share ideas and stories together, and I kept showing her what happened to The Weatherman as his life developed on my pages. Eventually I finished the story. I was really happy with where it went, but the friendship which helped e created had already started to fall away from me. I still made sure that I showed my old friend what happened, and she loved it. Her mother read about The Weather man too, and though it was an analogy for our relationship, because at times we had struggled with whether or not we had feelings for one another, but by that point, I was in a relationship (which is ongoing today), and we were too far apart for that thought to make sense to us anymore.

Now, as I weave my allusion to the man who got me writing into my latest work, I realise that this is how I can let my younger self know that I've seen his friend off. No matter where emotions go when people die, and no matter where people themselves may end up, I hope that they know that they're missed by those of us left behind, and that we remember them fondly as time passes with the sketches in our books and the stories in our minds.

Goodbye Hannah, and thank you.