Farewell Clive and Elaine

If you have been following my blips over the years, you will know that Len and I have spent many happy hours with Clive and Elaine in their wonderful garden. We called in to see them on April 22nd on the way back from Lyveden and enjoyed tea while sitting outside the wooden summer house.

It was something of a surprise to receive an invite from their son G to go for drinks today to celebrate their lives. What a nice idea to celebrate them while they're still with us. Except that they are no longer with us.

Unknown to us, they had died in a car smash on the A47 on May 9th. It was a shock to learn this, this afternoon. We had been looking round for them. I hadn't even made the connection when G had asked for bright clothes, no mourning.

We toured their garden, one last time, and managed to find the last of the Meconopsis poppies of which Clive was so very proud. His geology field notebooks were on display as were copies of Elaine's monograph on field walking in Rutland. She finally got published. Hurrah!

I can hardly believe we won't see them again. Another way of looking at it is they both departed together, that death was probably instantaneous. They left the world before they became too frail to manage it.

I did enjoy meeting Roger Key again after all these years. I last saw him in Botswana in 1976. He and Martin Litherland are compiling an obituary of Clive which will be published in the Royal Geographical Journal.