Friends

Friends.
I have a dear friend whom I first met when I started work at 17 in the Civil Service.  Ann was what would now be called my mentor.  I learnt so much from her about map work, we worked in the Land Registry, but also about life.  At 30 she seemed to me to be everything I wanted to be, other than working in the Civil Service!  

Over the past 40 something years we have written to each other every few months, long rambling letters, and have stayed close friends.  Each year as well as a little present for my birthday she sends me a packet of seeds.  This year it was Cucamelon seeds!  I was a bit sceptical, but they have grown really well, and I have fruits!  They are teaspoon size and taste like a fruity cucumber.  The rampant climbing foliage is incredible and vine like - and the green fly seem to ignore it!

Today we buried another dear friend, Bobby.  There was no ceremony, no prayers, no minister, just close friends from the village at the graveside.  John had spent hours writing out what he was going to say, but in the end he just said a few words and then we stood in silence and remembered her in our own way.  It was dignified and incredibly moving.

It was a cold, windy, showery morning and we retired to the Sands for soup and sandwiches and to warm up.  It really felt that it was the village saying goodbye to a lovely friend.