Yesterday was the day of my trip up to Yorkshire to see my family and although I was pleased to have snatched conversations with them at the funeral last week, this is now the opportunity to make more sustained contact. I received a text from another nephew inviting me out to dine with him on Wednesday so I am now in the happy situation of being able to see not only my sister but at least three of my four nieces/nephews and I am sure I will find the opportunity to see the fourth in any case. I awoke quite early and allowed myself the luxury of an extra half hour in bed but the day has dawned as an absolutely glorious one. As the two friends I was with yesterday are also quite keen and regular patrons of Wetherspoons (as I am after the closure of the café in Waitrose), they were teasing me that they are going to introduce me to a lively (female) acquaintance of theirs who they reckon can talk for England and who they think may be good for me – I have my hands too full at the moment to think of things like that. The remainder of the packing has yet to be completed but the laptop I am currently using will come with me so that I can carry on completing the blog each day. On the train journey, when I have some reflection time, I can no doubt think of a suitable choice of words to go on the brass plate which I intend to purchase and affixed to the Pier Head section of the pier at Clevedon which we visited yesterday and to which our friend had taken us on at least two occasions when we could get Meg into a car. I have to say that time is rushing by so quickly at the moment that I can scarcely believe that it is over five weeks since Meg’s death but I am relieved that with the assistance of our superb domestic help, various articles of clothing such as shoes and outdoor coats which would have been in an accessible place in our hall have now been despatched to other places and I have not had the actual wrench of throwing them away myself. Grief is such a very individual thing but I feel that I am managing this part of my life quite successfully. However, after I return from Yorkshire the intense social activity of the past few months and weeks will diminish sharply but I am plugged into one or two things to improve my state of health and, of course, I can resume my daily walks down into town where I am always warmly greeted by the Waitrose staff who know me. Upon my return, I have a mass of wonderful things that have been said about Meg in emails, texts and condolence cards so I intend to garner the rest of these and out them on the website so that they will have a more permanent rather than transient nature. I am so pleased that I put my eulogy for web in an accessible piece of webspace because so many people who knew Meg but could not attend the funeral have had the opportunity for a quick résumé of Meg’s life and the impact that I felt she made upon the world. My Seasoned World Traveller friend read the eulogy and he was particularly struck by the figure of over 700 paid placements into which Meg placed students as a placement tutor which marked her out as not just another university academic.
I had some fascinating travelling companions from Birmingham to as far as Sheffield. My principal companion was an academic now retired who had supervised PhD dissertations in Politics and International Relations at Nene College, Northampton and she also had an interest in Research Methods. We were joined by a chap, now retired who worked as a researcher for several County Councils so we all had quite a lot in common. When the lady academic left the train at Sheffield her place was taken by a children’s nurse specialising in oncology and on her way to a conference in Edinburgh. So the time absolutely flew by and then onto Leeds where the Harrogate train left from the most obscure of platforms (3B which you had to reach by walking to the end of 2B) and the train seemed surprisingly full. Then it was just a short taxi ride to the hotel where I quickly got unpacked and even the laptop found the internet connection by itself. I did discover, though, that I had forgotten to pack some of my medication so I sent an urgent text to my son who will be posting some tomorrow and of the two pills I can get a commercial alternative from the chemists tomorrow and I may be able to cadge the other from family members! Just before 5.00pm I popped out to the shop which I know is just across the road and bought some breakfast supplied and then my niece cane along to see me promptly at 5.00pm. We popped out of the hotel into a neighbouring, practically deserted pub that specialised in good ales and I enjoyed a fascinating pint of an award-winning Harrogate mild. We had a wonderful hour and a half in each other’s company and then my niece went home only to return with a supply of some pills which I had forgotten to bring with me. Then as we had so many family matters to discuss, we carried talking and talking until practically 11.00am at which point my niece really had to return home to her family. We had all kinds of family matters to discuss which we did in great detail as well as catching up on matters theological and practical. Apart from Meg’s death, there was a lot of ground for us to catch up on and my niece and I were more than happy to chew the fat right throughout the evening. Tomorrow, her husband who is a retired headteacher of some note is going to escort me around various places and we are due to visit my sister in her residential home which I have not yet had the opportunity to visit.