Today I lost an old friend

When I first moved to Chichester in 1975 it was the days when the "man from the Pru" used to come to the door to collect your insurance premiums and of course sell you some more policies if he could.

One night the door bell rang and there was our man from the Pru with a colleague he was introducing as the area rep. He was a stocky bloke with a crewcut in a suit rather like one of those worn by Alexi Sale, very tight and all the buttons done up. His name was Julie! This was my introduction to the Pru and one which would be far different and has nothing to do with why we moved to Selsey.

But it was in Selsey that the new man from the Pru (yes, a man) called at the door one night to introduce the new area rep. and no, it wasn't the androgynous Julie either it was a short, smartly dressed little man with a beard and looking remarkably like a diminutive Steven Spielberg, called David and we were to become good friends over the next 20 years.

David and I were to learn a lot about each other even to the extent that we went to the same school in London and that we had a shared sense of humour. So I took a chance and when I left IBM in 1992 I went to work with David for a short while, remained firm friends even after parting company and my return to mainstream work in IT.

Today, sadly, David died leaving three children and a large gap in everyone's lives who knew him, laughed with him or were exasperated by him at times. For a small man he had a huge personality and a wealth of apparent confidence as well as a head that held a vast amount of detail about insurance.

During a conversation we often had about a new "career" he was seeking which ranged from taxi driving, train driving, being a postman or selling cars he always ended up staying where he was, in Insurance. I told him once that he must be one of the worst people you could ever possible have working for you... we fell about laughing and then... he agreed!

One thing is for certain, above all else in his life his three kids came first, he loved them dearly and they will all miss him terribly. But David is now free of his demons and at peace at last after what must have been an awful year for him.

I will miss him enormously as will his family.