Feeling sad

A somewhat subdued blip today, so please forgive me.

I didn’t go out to have my hair cut as planned because my lovely husband suddenly felt quite unwell this morning and I couldn’t leave him on his own. He’s much improved now, but it wasn’t nice for him while it lasted.

I’m feeling sad because this would have been my dear friend Fiona’s 65th birthday today. She died in 2020 during lockdown after a short and very sudden illness, without any visitors allowed to see her in hospital until her husband and sons were called in just before she died. 

As I sit here in my craft room typing at my computer, I’m looking at a decorative plaque she once bought me which says "There’s a special place in heaven for the mother of three boys", which Fiona gave me many years ago – both of us having three sons – and which always makes me smile. 

This nativity scene also has a special place in my heart. Fiona and I went to a nearby hotel a couple of years ago to look at an art display by local artists and while we were there we went and had a coffee together in the lounge. Fiona whipped out her phone and showed me a picture of a nativity scene like this, and asked me if I liked it because she was thinking of making some for our church annual sale. I did, very much! Then I whipped out my phone and took a photo of her, because I love recording special moments in my life (which is why I am enjoying Blip so much!).

A day or so later she appeared on my doorstep and presented me with this prototype, which she and her husband had made. They went on to make a batch of them for the church sale, which sold very well, and mine stays on my hall table all year round because I can't bear to put it away after Christmas.

And the photo which I took on the spur of the moment? That turned out to be one of the last photos that was ever taken of her, and her husband asked me to put it on the front of the service sheet which I typed for her service of thanksgiving.