Still Alive ?

[Gardian]

For years, we’ve exchanged Christmas cards with a lady in the UK.

She’s the widow of a colleague of my late Father. The two of them worked together for quite a time and I knew her as a ‘quite young’ woman in our sort-of circle.

She lost her husband at a quite young age, but we’ve kept in touch via Christmas cards and the occasional telephone call.

This year, no Card !!! Very unusual, but her missing one wasn’t the only one. Still, it was concerning.

I rang the local Council a week or two ago and to my amazement, they put me on to somebody in ‘Registrations’ who was able (and prepared) to tell me that the lady concerned hadn’t died in that area. That’s not to say that she mightn’t have gone in to a Retirement Home elsewhere and passed away there.

Quandary. Searched all my files and records and eventually found her phone number. Rang her this afternoon.

“Oh, I’m still alive and kicking”. “A bit depressed with all this, but who isn’t?”

I asked her how old she is - a bit rude really, but she didn’t seem to mind. Just 86, a blooming sight younger than I thought she was. Why was I worrying about the old girl ?

She said that the church is almost opposite to where she lives - “When I pop off, they can chuck me over the wall and it’s sorted”.

[Lori]

I do love a good sense of humor.

[idun]

 Sounds like a wonderful lady, and worth keeping in touch with. She must have been delighted you had called and you are so good remembering you hadn't heard from her.

I just love a sense of humour like that.

And now you have given me the nudge I need to contact a few people I haven't been in touch with for too long.

[Judith-aka-Judith]

Did you ever find out why no card??

[Gardengirl]

She sounds a game old lady!

They do say that you have to be strong/determined/stubborn to grow old, but I’m sure that a good sense of humour must be in the mix somewhere.

[Gardian]

As said originally, we were missing two or three cards this year and the rest of the ‘general post’ has been pretty erratic since early December.

The lady concerned said that she had sent us one, but there may be a clue in that for Christmas 2019 .......... she sent us two cards!

Maybe a bit of confusion over such matters ........ or perhaps the 2nd one in 2019 was the 2020 one in advance !

[mint]

Maybe she saw one of those PO adverts that say "Post early for Christmas"?

I am forever being asked where exactly in our village we live.  As we are not on GPS, they do have a reason for asking.  I say we are mi-chemin entre l'eglise et le cimetière and that it is an address that is très practique, they always give a bit of a laugh or perhaps it's a snigger.

[Alan Zoff]

When my brother married in the 60s, a card arrived addressed to "Graham and his wife to be, a bungalow somewhere between the church and a common on the road from Malvern towards Gloucester". On a holiday, he had met this chap from Birmingham who didn't know my brother's surname or the name of the village but remembered roughly where the coach had dropped Graham off. Gra must have told him about his wedding plans.

Amazingly, that was enough for the local post people, the Malvern post office presumably having worked out which village it was and our post lady - well she knew everything going on and was a close family friend.

The village population is about 10 times bigger now and I don't think it would happen today.

[Gardian]

Alan Z .......

What you describe is certainly the case over here.

I’m not sure whether its the postlady / postman or the infermier / infermiere who knows more about what’s going on locally.

I reckon the district nurses. Simply because they have very close ‘contact’ with people and they (the customers) tend to open up about ............ well, everything !