Sent out my annual e mail Christmas missive today and got this reply from Snoopy's Woodstock
Charlie and Stella moved in with me last summer “for a few weeks” which turned into 8 months of unemployment. My mother fell and broke her hip in January, caught Covid in hospital and died at the end of February. My brother and I were summoned by the hospital to be there at the end so we spent 48 hours on a COVID ward looking after her because they were so short of staff. We then had to isolate for 10 days. My brother caught it but I did not. Malcolm’s brother, Ian, died from a stroke a couple of weeks earlier but I missed the funeral because it was the day my mother died. Things go in threes and in March, Stella’s brother died of skin cancer. In the spring, things started to look up and Charlie and Stella moved to Warwick. She’s working in a children’s nursery and he’s doing a post-grad in HR. Then I had a spot of bother with an Albanian drug dealer who gave the police my address when he was arrested. The police tried to raid us which was frightening and then a rival gang stalked me and spent weeks staking out the house, so I decorated everywhere and sold it rapidly. I have moved to a small but perfectly formed bungalow in Tiptree- about half a mile from the jam farm.
Amy and Tom got married in September and that was bittersweet- truly wonderful day but no Malcolm to enjoy it with. Amy looked lovely, most of the photos are awful.
The day after that Harry went off to university. He’s at Brighton doing Psychology and seems to be having a great time there. The work doesn’t appear to be even slightly taxing and Brighton is still a cool place to be when you’re young.
As my late mother in law would say, “We may be poor but we do see life”.
