Justine’s favourite colour was purple. The day after she was killed in a car accident at aged 29, all the people who worked the company she worked for wore purple in her honour. I tried to find purple flowers for her memorial garden.

When she was about 10 or 11 she decided she had outgrown her “Unicorn” and rainbow bedroom. We took down all the pink bows and unicorn wallpaper and her dad asked her what colour she wanted him to paint it. We were in for a surprise because she said she wanted to sponge paint it herself and she didn’t want any help. Her bedroom wasn’t very big but it seemed like too big of a job for a 10 year old. She had made up her mind and it was final. I figured that since it is her bedroom, who am I to argue?

We bought the 3 colours she had chosen. Purple! Pink! Green! Sponge painting was very popular at the time and it wasn’t difficult to do. It was just a lot of wall space to fill for a girl. She started as soon as she got up. It was a hot, summer day and the rest of the family was outside working. Every so often I would go to her closed door and asked her if she was OK and if she needed any help. The answer was always. I’m fine! Go away! I wanted to peek in and see but I knew she wanted to be independent and not let us see until she was finished.

A couple of hours went by and I went to check on her. I made her some lunch but had to leave it outside the door because there was no admittance. Another couple of hours, then a couple more. It was late afternoon and she had not stopped working all day. I knew it was a very big job but she should’ve been finished by now, I thought. By dinner time I demanded she let me in. I figured I could help her finish the last bit. She reluctantly opened her door and she had only done one small portion of one wall! She had been concentrating on getting it precise instead of making big random splotches. Needless to say she allowed me to help. We had it finished in an hour or two.

What is your favourite colour?