bye for now

Trying to defuse the sadness of saying goodbye by taking photos on the doorstep. I’ll be back when I can. Dad is off with my sister to have his pacemaker checked this morning and Mum is going to Chatty Cafe at the church so they both have something to keep them busy. I’m on the train to London.

This morning, Mum and I were looking at a scrapbook of mementos kept by her Dad. Civil defence rules, ID cards, information about the new NHS, a map of the Coronation Procession of Queen Elizabeth, and so on. All fascinating stuff. The last menu was from a dinner in a Windermere hotel. My grandfather worked for Vickers and he and my Grandma had been invited to the launch of a ship in Barrow in Furness. It was two days after I was born. I asked Mum if she had minded her own Mum being so far away, but she couldn’t remember. Mum was busy working when Sarah was born, but I remember that Dad hopped on a train up to Newcastle to see his first grandchild :-)

As we pass through East Croydon, I am filled with sadness for the family of the young girl who was stabbed to death on her way to (my old) school. A life cut cruelly short.