The weekend just gone started off well but went rapidly downhill.
Bob and I had a nice din dins at home and then went out for a little drink on Friday evening, (Samhain) with Dev, KP, Steff and Pete. We went to the Marwood down the Tything, which is so much busier than when it was called the Greenman, it’s just a shame it no longer has all the green man plaques on the wall. We chatted and argued as ever about lots of stuff. It was quite a subdues Samhain for me but I did raise my glass to those that were no longer with us and everyone joined in as usual. I hope I didn’t freak Pete out too much as he hasn’t been seeing Steff long so therefore may not be used to my ways yet.
We all left quite early, which was probably for the best given what was to happen later. Bob and I wandered off home and went to bed. About 5 in the morning the phone started ringing. I’m a very light sleeper so leapt out of bed and answered it whilst Bob lay in a very confused state in bed. It was Jen, Bob’s oldest sister who lives at the farm with their dad. She wanted to speak to Bob who had managed to haul himself out of bed and was wandering around looking befuddled. Jen had just had a call from the hospital where their granddad was after breaking his hip. He had taken a turn for the worse and they weren’t expecting him to last much longer. We got dressed and were literally going out of the door when Tracey called, (Bob’s other sister). His granddad had died before anybody had managed to get to the hospital to be with him. He wasn’t a young man obviously; he would have been 93 next week. Up until last year he had been very active, he had gone blind a few years ago due to glaucoma but still had all his faculties about him. Then he had a stroke and had not been the same since. A strange thing about the date, not only it was the day of the dead, (1st November) it is also the same day that Bob’s mum died.
We went back to bed and I finally went back to sleep. We got up a few hours later and moped around for a bit before going up to the farm. God it was cold up there, the wind was lashing the place as usual but it was a horrible biting wind. Tracey had just got there with Ben and Natalie his niece and nephew. Jen was there also but his dad was off sorting stuff out in Ludlow, (otherwise known as going to the pub). They reminisced for ages about the old man. He was in the Ulster riffles in the war and there were quite a few photos of him in his uniform in various places around the world. Bob’s dad finally turned up, carrying a pork pie for Bob, (it’s amazing how many people give him pies as gifts). We reminisced some more then finally drove home.
We were supposed t o be going out that evening with Bob’s old housemates for dinner. Bob was not feeling very sociable at all so he rang up Rich and told him we weren’t going. We sat in watching Saturday evening TV and eating fish and chips. Actually that’s a lie, we watched Hot Fuzz on DVD to cheer us up.
