Lucy asked me to read something from ‘The Little Prince’ as Omid loved this book and we so often spoke about it. Omid is a unique soul, who loved to look at the stars. He always saw the world from a different perspective, with the mind of a scholar and the heart of a child, rather like the Little Prince.

This is taken from the very beginning of the book, before we even meet the Little Prince, but it captures the essence of the story.

‘Once, when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. I pondered deeply over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a coloured pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing.

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made a second drawing: I drew the INSIDE of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained.

The grown-ups response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.

I have had a many encounters with people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups.

Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my first drawing, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:

“That is a hat.”

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.’

Omid, Dear Friend,Thank you. Thank you

For showing us how to look at the world with all the humour and imagination of a child.

For showing us the stars.

For showing us how to dream.

We will always love you,

We will always hold you in our hearts

and we will never, ever stop talking to each other about boa constrictors, primeval forests and stars…