Here are the words I spoke at Sarah's funeral

Sarah the sister

Simply put, Sarah’s defining characteristic was passion. She was full to brimming with passion. More than anything, she directed it towards the people that she loved. But she also had great passion for the places, experiences, connections and adventures through which she sought to broaden her horizons.

Growing up as Sarah’s younger brother was intimidating and inspiring in equal measure. Sarah was from a young age scarily motivated and possessed of an uncommon sense of purpose and direction. I have a sketchy memory of an early homework assignment, on the animal kingdom, in my first year of primary school, which I had no idea how to embark upon. Sarah, five years older, came into my room and told me exactly how I would go about it. She then proceeded to show me how best to organise myself for the term, in order to do my homework quickly and get excellent marks. Advice which, though well intended, was wasted on me.

As a teenager and young woman, Sarah’s sense of purpose increasingly crystallised around achievement at school, and nowhere more than in languages was her talent more evident. Of the four she spoke, she mastered Spanish to a level that often led native speakers to assume that she was one herself. But Sarah’s passion for Spanish was not just about getting the grammar right or nailing the accent. It was for connecting with the people she spoke it with, for absorbing and embracing the culture of affection, emotion and fierce love for kith and kin found in so many Spanish speaking countries. It was a language she lived as much as spoke. In the emotionally restrained and distant relations frequently found in British society, Sarah was sometimes a fish out of water, and I think it was for this reason that she sought out the intensity, passion and closeness of the people and places she encountered in Mexico and then in Spain. Through her example, enthusiasm and a desire to share with me the beauty and passion she was experiencing, she drew me into this enticing, exciting and welcoming world. Sarah and I may be to all intents and purposes the female and male incarnations of the same person, but she showed me the way to becoming who I am, with kindness, with encouragement, with deep love and empathy beyond words.      

So in some ways, I was surprised to see her settling down in Reading, as opposed to one of the great Spanish or even Italian speaking cities of the world. I wasn’t quite sure why she remained and if I’m honest at one point I wondered if she had lost her focus. But it was not lost, just changed. Over the years, I have come to see the profound commitment she made first to her relationship with Nick and then to becoming the mother of two beautiful children with big hearts and keen, lively minds. I’ve also come to realise that what was most amazing about her, and what was most important to her, was not her vision, intelligence, linguistic flair or sense of adventure, but her fierce, passionate love for the people in her life.