I had a Christmas card from my friend in Scotland on Friday. We've been friends since we were five years old ,when we started school.
Grade Two was our happiest, most carefree year. Miss Kelly was our teacher.
She was young and pretty with masses of black curly hair.
Annie Wolohan and I sat together at a double desk. We got to squeeze out sponges in the jam jars on the window sill and go round the class wiping slates clean . We got other neat little chores to do as well. When new slate pencils had to be distributed , we slid the lid off the box and caught the scent of fresh cedar shavings that kept the pencils whole and still remind me of those happy days.
We lived close by each other. Our family environments were substantially different but we practically shared each other's lives. We both had sisters but we were closer to one another than we were to our sisters.
Life separated us early but we always knew we were still best friends.
Bobby Gibson is Anne's husband . She loved him since she was thirteen. There was a point when they separated. He went into the navy. Ann was a bus conductor for years. I went to London after the war.
Ann got engaged to someone else. I never knew him.
Bobby's ship was shelled on the Yangtse River . The crew who survived had to swim ashore and went missing for a bit.
Ann knew then she could not spend her life with anyone else.
They've been married now more than sixty years. Like everyone else , they had their troubles.
They were in Canada for a while. In Vancouver. Bobby liked it. Ann persuaded him to come to live in Toronto. They stayed with us for a bit. Then she went back in Scotland and Bobby followed .
They've been there ever since.
I was in Scotland in the early nineties for several months taking care of my mother. One day after I'd
been hanging out laundry, in the sunshine , with a stiff sea breeze blowing. Ann came and knocked on my mother's door.
"I thought it was you " she said. She had been looking out her kitchen window and couldn't believe her eyes.
We were s close as ever again for a few months. We have exchanged Christmas cards faithfully and news of our families ever since.
I received her card on Friday without much news and just hoping we are all well.
She knew I was still involved in the town's political affairs. She didn't know I was suing .
It's too late now to send a Christmas card. They had to give up the phone a few years ago.
So I won't be able to say where it's at now or that everything's fine at my end.
Which is as good a way as any I suppose, of wishing her a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year
and Tidings of Comfort and Joy.
It's never too late to send the Christmas card.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest you stick with a card & family news. Lots of time to fill in the details when they are less fuzzy. Just an idea. She will be looking for something from you.
ReplyDeleteMonday morning the mail boxes at the Variety store were over-flowing. They had called twice even before opening to ask for a collection. Didn't happen. We really are losing out on service since the PO closed.
ReplyDeleteIt was a little thing - our Post Office. But it worked very well for years. Our elected reps all wrote letters. To no avail. The jobs at the front desk & in sorting moved north. So the building could be sold for condos. While residents got letters explaining this was an effort to save them money.
ReplyDeleteGo figure
Canada Post says it is responding to the request of seniors to get more exercise & will cut home delivery of mail. Gee, no one asked this senior.
ReplyDelete21:23
ReplyDeleteWhat about people with problems ? Those who still rely on snail mail for their bills? Individuals who are afraid of ice and falls ?
Not to mention more lost jobs while the head of Canada Post gets almost half a million a year. I bet the MPs don't walk to their mailboxes.
I can see a bright young unemployed youngster with access to a car starting a business,
ReplyDelete" We Walk Your Mail "
And picking up the mail for seniors. Could go national.