The days drift by and it’s not easy to resolve to do anything on any specific day. It doesn’t seem to matter. Yet it does, of course – but I’ve not sent out a group email that I was absolutely intending to send today and I haven’t made any progress with securing lots for the next auction, which really needs to be done in the next few weeks.
However, this is a positive blog, so this is what I have done. Wink and I took a stroll round the village yesterday and, walking down the main street, moved into the road to make way for a woman in a wheelchair. As we were ready to pass each other, her face lit up and she greeted me by name. Thank goodness I immediately knew who she was, because I’m not great at facial recognition and she has lost a lot of weight. I introduced her to Wink and we had a chat. My friend Beryl has had treatment for pancreatic cancer for several years now – six or seven, I think – and she says she hasn’t got much longer before she dies: there is no more positive treatment. She can’t walk far, but she was chatty and cheerful and her granddaughter was going round the village with her. We both took circular routes, so met again ten minutes later and chatted again.
Today, I phoned a couple of friends to offer them eggs – I knew a third would be at work, so I just dropped them off at hers (not literally dropped, obvs). The final dozen, I took to my friend John. He invited me in for coffee and I was probably an hour there, we had a lovely catch-up. He and his late wife were good friends, but she died of Alzheimer’s three years ago and we’ve only seen each other a few times since then. He’s in his late 80s, though you wouldn’t think it to look at him or talk to him and I have, belatedly, taken on board that I mustn’t neglect my friends any more. We haven’t been officially allowed to see each other but now we are, so now we should. So I’ll phone Jan tomorrow – we did speak last week, but we haven’t seen each other this year yet – and I’ll crack on with those neglected emails and phone calls.
The reason for the walk round the village was for Wink to post some letters. Yes, she does actual snail mail for her friends without email. She’s far better at keeping in touch than I am. She says it’s because she hasn’t got children, so she needs her friends, but I said that she’d do it anyway and I probably wouldn’t, because I find it hard to manage to keep up with people and she loves it. At least the prolific bantams ensure that I contact friends to offer them eggs. The next lot will be taken to Beryl.
And now I’m going to write that group email, which is about meeting for lunch next month.