When Dürten came to Aberdeen, she was not thrilled with the city, but I had just started to live here so I kidnapped her one day and we had a whistle stop tour of the parks, flower gardens, the cathedral and university.

When I visited her in hospital, she told me it helped her a lot to know this beauty existed in the city. Her hospital room was decorated with cards, messages of love and support and pictures and gifts from all over the world. She was touched and delighted by the outpouring of love and she received it into her heart. In those early days of her illness she was filled with radiance and a pure energy of love and appreciation.

Later on, she was able to visit our home and enjoyed lying on the sofa, warmed by a glowing fire, listening to my partner Francis playing the piano. She sighed with pleasure and said it was a highlight for her.

Her room on Union Street in a hotel looked out into a street where there were sometimes brawls and the pub downstairs was noisy. It was a contrast to Findhorn! When she told me on the phone, I asked her to meet me round the corner. at the bar of His Majesty’s Theatre, which looked out into the brightly lit Union Street Gardens, for another perspective, and here she is, smiling across our cocktails. Hers were non alcoholic, of course, but we had as much fun together as if we were drinking champagne. We both found it was amazing that the number 1 bus went directly from her place to mine – how convenient!

Dürten did everything anyone ever could for our community. It was not in her plan to spend time at the end of her life in Aberdeen. So I’m glad I was there to hold her in a little bubble of love just for that time, and even more glad that she chose to go home for her passing.