I have a lot of memory’s of David,  but more than specific memories is a feeling. A feeling of laughter and joy whenever he was around. If he was around the chances were you were laughing.
 
He had a great way of being able to look at you, and convey with a single glance, friendship and humour. Like you and he had a “shared private joke”  which often you did. 
 
This look I’m trying to convey was part of his undeniable charm and apparent to everyone who spent any real time with him. He had this look for everyone, a look of empathy, compassion, friendship, fierce loyalty, wisdom and love. A look that made you feel you could tell him anything, and he would do anything for you. All of this mixed with his cheeky smile meant he could get away with almost anything, which he often did. As a school boy he pretty much could talk his way out of anything and as man he had the same ability but with more finesse.
 
I have four memories from our school days that make me smile when I think of them;
 
The first:
Was actually our first day we sat next to each other in our new form room. We were paired off with the person next to us and asked to find out their name and three things about them.
David without thinking remembers everything about me. Me on the other hand, being dyslexic, couldn’t remember a thing (especially under pressure.) I felt like a moron. I levelled with Dave and told him I had issue remembering names, dates, etc. He told me don’t worry about it, he’d help me out. When asked, he stood and introduced me without a problem then when it was my turn I stood up and every time I stopped or paused he would whisper the thing I was stuck on prompting me and allowing me to continue. From this first day he helped me almost every day we were at school with the issues I had being dyslexic - checking spellings, helping me read and helping me decipher my own writing! He would do all of this with no judgment and just good humour. This has given me the confidence to this day to often level with people about being dyslexic.
  
The second:
Is a small thing but as we were always sat next to each other during assemblies I distinctly remember him whispering every answer to every question, whether it be rhetorical to the entire audience,  quiz questions or just general statements.
He would know the answers to most, although would never raise has hand, never put him self forward. He was quite happy just knowing that he knew. He never wanted to be known as the smartest, although often was, in fact I would argue that from a very young age David knew that you could often build better rapport, control a room and influence situations better if people underestimated your intelligence making him without doubt, a force to be reconfigured with.
 
The third:
One afternoon we decided to bunk off school and go back to mine as I lived only three doors down from the school. We decided we would make mushrooms covered in breadcrumbs. I remember asking David “do you know how to make them?” he answered me with such confidence that he did. I couldn’t think he didn’t.
I let him go for it. He was typically blagging it and didn’t have a clue. Looking at the sorrowful ,soggy mess of mushrooms in the frying pan he admitted that maybe he didn’t know how to make them. We then went in to my garden and had a cigarette. As we stood there laughing at the mess we had made of the mushrooms we heard the bell going from the school and it didn’t stop, it was the fire bell. Both of us knew we would be in massive trouble if we weren’t in school for a fire drill. 
We ran as fast as we could round the back of the school into the tennis court. Sam Yates Smith seeing us sneakily running in, casually stood back two spaces allowing us to slide into the back of the line in our correct positions. As Mr Murphy came down the line checking us in on the register, no one knew we had been gone. Except Sam. Years later I remember him actually making mushrooms covered in breadcrumbs properly and looking at me as if to say “I can make them now.”
 
The forth and last:
Is a simple one, and was just being at his house and him making us a small roast from scratch, including a chocolate brownie. After eating far too much going up to his room laying down, barely able to move putting on “Father Ted” which I had never seen - which David couldn’t believe, then binge watching the whole thing over two days, laughing the whole time. I am pretty sure David had put something in the stuffing and brownies as I don’t think we moved for two days! If I ever catch any of Father Ted now I still think of David giggling. 
 
As we got older we both found our passions in life. Pursuing your goals in life means naturally you meet up with people less. Working hard and playing hard is a trait we both shared. But when ever we did meet up it wouldn’t mater how much time had past, he’d give me a look , a shared joke with no words and It would seem that no time had past and we’d pick up where we left off. 
 
I don’t have many regrets in my life but not being able to have spent more time with this man and to not be able to introduce my girls to such a brilliant individual, will definitely be one. 
 
I will miss him terribly and will always love him like a brother. 
 
Rest in peace Dave.