With Grace In Her Heart And Flowers In Her Hair

Time may pass, but true friendship will live on in our hearts forever and ever.

- Lynn Tan

TEN years ago in 2007, I lost a dear friend after her 12-year battle with lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare lung disease.

Jacqueline Lim and I shared a love for cars, dogs, books and writing, and it was thanks to her that I got started as a motoring writer.

Writing brought us closer during the advanced stages of her illness, when we would exchange lengthy e-mails and text messages on a daily basis, sharing our deepest and most personal thoughts and feelings.

And I sought closure through writing a tribute piece dedicated in her memory in the December 2007 issue of Carma, two months after her passing.

Jacqueline’s mum once said that she is an angel sent by God to touch our lives, to teach us to love one another, to love life, and to treasure each and every day that we have.

A decade on, when we have grieved all there is to grieve and tried to move on as best we can, let us remember her by the ways with which she has touched our lives and the lessons in life that she has imparted to us through the way that she led hers.

FRIENDSHIPS CAN HAPPEN IN THE MOST UNEXPECTED WAYS 

It was a note Jacqueline had left on my car windscreen during our second year at university that started it all.

She was driving a new Alfa Romeo GTV then, and my vintage Alfa Romeo Spider had caught her attention. She was forming a motorsport committee for the university’s motoring club and she asked if I might be interested to join her.