Meeting after 9 years

I took the train to Berwick to meet an old friend, not seen for 9 years, who was staying with her friend in a holiday house in St Abbs. Liz got confused about the arrangements we made so went to the Maltings cafe an hour before my train got in. However she said it was nice so she’d booked a table for lunch. They kindly drove to meet me at the station and we went on down. Yrsa had a disabled pass so parking was free. When we went in Liz thought the cafe looked different and they had no record of a booking. Her friend said it was the same one. We had noticed another cafe up the street so went there and had lunch.

I’m glad I had a couple of hours with them but it was a bit sad too. Liz said she didn’t want to come to meet the other uni friends in Edinburgh as last time she said she didn’t feel comfortable but she couldn’t explain why. Her friend was interested in telling us about her 6 months on a kibbutz in 1963 and Liz told us about her son being held at gunpoint in India 30 years ago. They were quite lengthy stories. Liz also told me about the job she got when we both went to Canada on a student charter flight. I asked about her family and friends but had to leave for my train before she had the opportunity to ask about mine. (They offered to drive me to the station but I said I had enough time to walk and it would give them time to have a look round the town). But actually given the time it took them to get into the cafe and negotiate the parking I thought I would be quicker walking. It was quite depressing. I think she’s made the right decision about not meeting the other two as she’d not keep up and one of them would be impatient. She has texted to say how much she enjoyed catching up so that was nice.