The last two days have, for us, been momentous. On Monday we went as far as Dumfries, driving ourselves, not going by taxi, to the Heathhall Garden Centre to meet up with relations travelling north. Two of then live in England, but we have not seen them since before the Covid isolation time began, and we hadn’t seen them for a long while before that either. They brought with them another cousin who came to the UK when Covid began to be with his elderly Mother. He has lived with her ever since and she dies recently at the age of 99. He is now free to return to Oz, but there is much to sort out in the way of putting his Mother’s house on the market and dealing with her affairs. We cannot remember when we last saw him before all that, but the last photo I have was taken at Christmas 2003 !
We ate very well, and I think our conversation probably drowned out conversation at nearby tables. Our relations going north set off afterwards, and dropped off the Cousin at Abington services to catch a long distance Megabus to return ultimately to Plymouth via London.
Then yesterday we went to Gatehouse of Fleet to the Podiatrist, and then ate in the Galloway Lodge which also was excellent. So, in two days we have blown apart 3½ years of hermit like isolation. We are still alive, and feel as though we have been set free.
Quote : “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” Martin Luther King. 1958.
