A Silver Lining

Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud

Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

John Milton 1608-1674

Story contd.

Since I received the warm friendly letter from Jamie the cloud that had dogged my spirits for years began to lift and I felt at peace. If I never heard from Jamie again the bile flavoured memories had given way to fond recollections. I wrote to him and said it would be lovely to meet in London and gave him the shop telephone number and told him the days I would be there.

Meanwhile I had the usual frantic preparations for Christmas; the boys and my parents would be with us and I wanted it to be special now that we saw much less of them. The boys had graduated from being maddening teenagers to our most favoured and favourite visitors. Just to make life a little more hectic I decided to give a drinks party with neighbours, friends and theatre club cohorts. In the middle of the party my long lost housekeeper and her husband, who I hadn’t seen since my eldest was a baby turned up and we had a very emotional reunion.

Looking back it was almost like a farewell party although I was completely unaware at the time. William and I had talked so much about having separate establishments I felt I had better, at least, mention the possibility to my parents and to William’s brother and wife. Their reactions were interesting.

‘Well you’ve spoilt my Christmas Pat!’ said Dad.

‘Oh well William had better come and live with us.’ said Wally, William’s brother.

That’s the last thing William would have wished to do. He was not some ancient parent, but a man with an important job, many interests and hobbies, who valued his privacy and independence.

Dad - like so many people in this situation preferred the status quo to continue, regardless.

The last time I had discussed the possibility of a trial period apart William had said,

‘Once you go you’ll never come back.’

So I decided to shelve the idea for the time being.

We had a memorable Christmas. # 1 son had his girl friend who lived locally and whom I was very fond of and we played The Game where one team mimed the title of a book, film or TV programme for the other team to guess. Mum couldn’t quite grasp the idea that she should mime and cheated outrageously by whispering the missing word or syllable. Needless to say we were in hysterics much of the time.

On Christmas Day the family went for a walk before lunch whilst I kept the turkey company and wondered how Jamie was coping. What I didn’t know was that for two years before his wife died he had looked after her and the boys – been chief cook and bottle washer and held down a very demanding job.

One of my boys gave me a Stevie Wonder LP and Mum loved the song ‘Isn’t she lovely.’ It always reminds me of that last happy Christmas we all had together. After Christmas the theatre club asked me to choose and direct a play in the spring. I was hesitant after the last disaster but realised I had learned something from it and this time I would choose something a little less ambitious with a smaller, more manageable cast.

The shop was always in the doldrums in January so I was pleased one dreary day when the phone rang; it didn’t happen often because we were ex-directory – we didn’t want customers phoning all the time to see if we had sold little Johnny’s football shorts. It was Jamie. I recognised his voice and I could tell from the sound of it that he was smiling and I had a big grin on my face. He told me he would be in London on the 5^th of January and could I possibly meet him for lunch.

‘Oh my goodness that’s next week.’

‘Is that alright Pat? We can make it later in the month if you like.’

‘No that’s perfect. It’s just I can’t believe I’m going to see you after all this time.’

We basked in mutual wonder and delight. That’s all I can remember.