Reanna Garewal
14.02.1993 – 01.12.17
 
And you can’t hide such luminosity.
 
It was hard to believe it in December when news reached me that Class of 2011 Badminton student Reanna Garewal had passed away, aged just twenty-four.
 
Reanna had been diagnosed with leukaemia in January 2017 and had seemed to be making excellent progress after almost a year of intensive treatment in Bristol, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow treatment.  Unfortunately, in November she contracted a chest infection, then developed pneumonia and in her fragile condition was unable to fight off the illness. She slipped away, surrounded by loving family and devoted friends, on 1^st December.
 
After leaving Badminton, Reanna, a local day girl whose family live in Shirehampton, had gone on to study Social Policy at the University of Bristol, qualifying in 2015. She soon began working for Berkley Square IT as a Recruitment Consultant and was looking forward to working from home for a period before returning to work full-time. (- coincidentally, Berkley Square IT’s headquarters at 1, Berkley Square was Badminton School’s second home after Mrs Badock’s little school outgrew its original premises in Burlington Gardens, Redland, after only a year so she moved to No 1 Berkley Square in 1859, before moving again across the square in 1861 to the much larger No. 31).
 
Reanna was supported throughout her illness by her peer group, many of whom were her fiercely loyal and devoted Badminton class mates. I was privileged to be Reanna’s Sixth Form Tutor and quickly realised she was blessed with an extraordinarily sunny personality. She was optimistic, trusting, fearless, outgoing yet also modest. She expected the best from life and from people, and invariably we all felt compelled to live up to her expectations. You couldn’t let Reanna down and you knew she would never let you down. Her friends prepared a deeply touching tribute to her which they delivered at her funeral and which they have kindly allowed us to reproduce and which will be used to celebrate her life later this year. The Badminton community offers Reanna’s family and friends our deepest condolences.
Mrs R. Robertson
March 2018