I finished my piece about Tim. I wrote about things that were part of him, that he cared about and that made him the person he was. Places, friends, family, books – reading and writing, food and, always with him whatever else he was doing, music. I could have written a lot more but a page of 734 words seemed to be enough. Like our wedding, either we had 30 or 250, we pared it right down or opened it up and we chose to be sparing. I’ve also got some memories that others have written.

That took me to 2 o’clock in the afternoon. I rummaged for lunch. Twiglets and red wine was all that I fancied really, but I added some cheese and a couple of crackers. Later, I fell asleep and was woken by the telephone. I didn’t know where I was or what time it was for a few moments.

I’ve completed the catalogue and can send the PDF to the printers. There were a couple of errors, where I’d put the wrong estimates and a typo or two as well. Overall, it’s pretty good for my first solo effort. I had to do a couple of short pieces for the Antiques Collector magazine website, which I found really difficult. I’d missed the deadline, I’d simply forgotten it and had to apologise. Sensibly, the actual deadline was a week later, because it’s not unusual for reminders to have to go out, but I had to get it off by last night. I managed it, though I have no confidence it’s any good. It made me stay up late, which is probably a good thing. The night before, I was in bed by 9 and asleep soon after. But I woke up well before midnight and was awake for hours. That’s probably the reason I slept so heavily yesterday afternoon.

My American friends phoned yesterday afternoon from Atlanta, Ga. Dan’s mother Sheila’s mother was Russell’s mother’s cousin. Mother had married an American and moved over there. Sheila had her 92nd birthday the other day. I must write. I’m really not the best correspondent and Sheila is, I’m always a couple of letters behind. Her health is failing, though, Dan says she is starting to tire. I wanted to visit her and nearly made it – Russell agreed to go there and to New Orleans to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. But then my mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis was made so plans were shelved and he point-blank refused any other holidays, so we never went. He should have, but that’s his responsibility. Tim and I had plans too, but we didn’t manage it either. Maybe I will, but it depends on Wink being able to manage here for two or three weeks and I can’t make plans at present.

I can make appointments, though. I’ve made one for a valuation of his house. I hate to do this but it’s necessary. It’s not disloyal, though it feels it. Simply, I need its value for probate.

The other thing I’ve done was write a post on his own blog. Sometimes, a blog ceases to be updated with no explantation – with so many bloggers having just stopped over the past ten years or so, this may have no significance. Tim himself had only written two brief posts this year. But it seems only fair to his readers (he said he didn’t have regular readers any more apart from me and his brother) to let them know.