I was in Dublin today for a meeting and on my way back, I walked by a café. I found myself pausing because of its name, “Emer’s Kitchen.” As many of you know, my friend and deputy principal, Emer, passed away during the summer. Apart from sharing her name, the café seemed to also exude her personality with gorgeous, quirky seasonal details in the window and the inside was warm and inviting.

I had missed eating lunch as I was running late for my second meeting of the day so I went in and ordered some soup. After, I walked into the Dublin drizzle and over to Stephen’s Green where I stopped by a tree trunk, and thought of Emer as I ate my lunch. I thought about how she would have been dying to hear about my meeting because it was something we were both heavily invested in. Even though I was only there for a few minutes, it changed my pace for the rest of my day, and the walk back to the train station.

I noticed things in the park, that I hadn’t thought about for years. There was the pond where my mum would have brought my sister and me on the bus to feed the ducks so I decided to walk along the bank of it and remembered her. There was the bandstand in the middle of the park where I nearly had my first kiss but bottled it! I didn’t lurk too long there! I’d forgotten how many memories I have in that park.

I didn’t want to throw away the bag so I carried it with me along the quays where I thought more about Emer and one of the nights I was in her kitchen for dinner with her lovely family and some friends from work. The quirky features, the fun, the warm and inviting feeling. You never know when you’re going to be stopped in your day to think of someone but I’m glad to have found the café.