The Falls of Lora, from Connel Bridge

This shot is very similar to my sister TML’s. We spent most of the day doing the same things, dashing around from Connel to Oban, and back again. We may have visited Benderloch. I remember buying some chicken breast in the world-famous pink shop in Benderloch and leaving it in my sister’s wheelie bin because no one was up, but that may have been another day!

We did visit the florist in Oban, regarding the funeral flowers. We did have lunch with my sister K and her son N in the Shore cafe. We did go shopping for funeral shoes, coats and clutch bags. We did NOT climb Ben Lora, because I hadn’t got a good pair of shoes or boots for hill walking. Tanya and I definitely walked across Connel bridge to take these photos. Our family home was on the North Connel side, near Achnaba Kirkyard, soon to be visited for yet another family funeral.

We had starters for supper in the Glue Pot bar in Connel, Steve having risen from his rugby-watching nap to join us, and then hightailed it back to Oban to the Rockfield centre to watch a talented musician from Zimbabwe called Angus Mtizwa play with his band. K and her grown-up kids joined us. We’d all been in two minds about going to a gig two nights before a funeral , but it seemed wrong not to support African musicians coming to Oban, even though the said musicians live in Stirling now. I’d never been to Rockfiekd Centre before (it used to be a primary school) and was impressed by an exhibition of old photos of Oban’s Shore Street in the distant past. A lot of water under the bridge since then.

I never dreamed, when I was 15 and raging against the lack of excitement and opportunity in Oban, that 46 years later I’d be attending an African music in a former school, surrounded by family, while grieving for our mother and grandmother. Of course, I never dreamed of any of the other life events that have happened since then…. what did my fifteen-year-old self want, apart from live music and to get out of the highlands? What could I tell her now? Maybe,’ nothing will turn out as planned, but it’ll all be ok for the most part, and you’re going to have some crazy times and great adventures!’