Josh Phillips

No Antarctica stories quite yet, I'm afraid. When I got back to Ushuaia, it was to the truly dreadful news that the most wonderful boy in my school, Josh Phillips, had died in a bike accident in Manchester. He collided with a pedestrian, apparently, which is something I almost do every day, given pedestrian behavior in Manhattan. I wrote a little note which is going to his funeral tomorrow: "To Josh, Whose head was always in the clouds," it said. He was the kindest guy in the world, and there is no way at all to make sense of a world where Josh – Josh of the twinkling eyes and the patchwork coat and the 12-year-old daughter, for chrissakes – gets picked off while the rest of us are enjoying penguins and Malbecs. I'm not going to be at the funeral, but I am going to work out how to make a donation in Josh's memory to Treesponsibility, and it would be great if you did too. So lots of love from NYC to Rachel and Poppy and everybody who Josh touched – which is a lot of people – and if any of you ever find yourselves here, I'll try to show you some of the love and hospitality which was second nature to Josh, and maybe fit in some backgammon, too, and long whisky-fueled talks into the night about Feyerabend or entropy. But Josh was unique and the world won't ever be the same without him.

Posted by Felix at 22:38 EST

Comments

Geez man, sorry to here that. Hate to say it but it smells like his 'collision' with the ped may have been more like a drunk punter pushing him off the bike. Sucks, regardless. Welcome back stateside, and have a happy -safe- holiday. More soon -
Eric

Posted by: eric at 17:32 EST, December 20, 2006

Sorry about your loss. Sounds like he was a fine lad.

Posted by: Biomed Tim at 0:39 EST, December 21, 2006

Eric, it was a tragic accident in rush hour, in Manchester. No drunk punter, just a man on his way home from work.

Posted by: Rhian at 11:39 EST, December 28, 2006