Final Easter activity was to meet one of my brother-in-laws and their family in Bosham to go for a walk. I absolutely love Bosham (see photo) - if I win the lottery (please happen) you never know it may become my home. I can dream!!!!
Those that do live there and have had it as their lockdown home must have had many moments when they've felt lucky. Although, you'll note from previous posts I've had a lot of those moments myself. There are worse places to be than at the foot of the south downs with the sea down the road!
It's been over a year since I've seen brother-in-law and family - isn't that bonkers. However, they live in Portsmouth and so whilst we've had all our COVID rules it's definitely not what we'd consider 'local'. Was good to catchup though and we all had an opportunity to point and laugh at our COVID hair.
And the week has basically gone downhill from there. On Thursday I did my shopping delivery to the elderly ladies that live opposite and who have been isolating for a year. When we first moved here they were a threesome of sisters - all with their hair dyed bright red. Each had their own house within 100m of each other. Each day they'd meet up and with arms linked march down to the seafront and back - a formidable trio. Then one of them got cancer and died, so the two remaining sisters moved into the same house.
It turns out that last Sunday one of the two remaining sisters had a fall, hit their head and didn't wake up again. I feel so sorry for the remaining sister - she said she'd never been alone before in her whole life. I've invited her to join us for our open Saturday nights - she said it's too soon - I hope that as time moves on she changes her mind.
The person that's usually with us on Saturday night (COVID rules allowing) is a friendship we've had for years - their other half was my boss many years ago. We lost touch, but when we moved into our current house we discovered that they lived further down the road (small world and all that). Then the person who had been my boss died leaving our friend as a single mother. So we invited our remaining friend to spend Saturday evenings with us as son was really young then and so we rarely got out. That was yonks ago - and our friendship has really grown over the years - in all honesty they are now really part of our extended family.
Then, you will recall, a very close friend died last March quite suddenly. She left a widow, who we are also very close to. He actually often prefers to keep to himself or meets up with others, but when it's been allowed he's also joined us on Saturday nights. Now it looks as if we've got another person who may join us. Let's see. It seems this is a new step in my life. Not sure I like this one very much I'd be much more content if people would just stop dying.
That said it's been very strange not having our Saturday night open houses for so many months because of the COVID rules - at least if/when things start up again it will mean we're moving back to normal. Though once we're inside the group has extended so much it will need to be 'elbows in' around the dining table.
Then this morning I got an email from my mother, explaining that my uncle has died. I didn't know him massively well as he's my fathers brother and my father moved to England from New Zealand. So most of his family is there. It's no less sad though and I feel so much for my poor dad. The brother that died was the baby of his family - so a bit of a shock to him I think.
My Uncle's son also lives in the UK, he'd travelled to NZ about a week ago to be with his dad who had fallen ill. He's currently in isolation in line with the NZ COVID rules. We're yet to find out whether he got the chance to see his dad beforehand. So sad.
Then of course, there's the loss that we all feel - Prince Phillip died this week as well. I don't want to go into great detail about things in a blog - I don't feel it's appropriate - but needless to say I am extremely sad.
What a week.
Comments
Post a Comment