A Beautiful Day

Jan 31

This was the start of a beautiful day. Valerie was already up when John came out of the bedroom. Val made him a cup of tea and while he was drinking it, he saw Alan start to leave with the dogs for their morning walk on the beach. He waved to Alan to wait and joined them and quickly got on his warm sweatshirt and jacket. Alan had come back in and loaned John a pair of boots and a warm hat.

They walked down to the beach. The dogs met their friends and played. Well, just watch the video to see...



After they came back, it was time to get dressed for going out. Although John had said he wanted to take them all out for dinner, Valerie said definitely not today.

Les called to say he was nearly there and Valerie went out to see her brother. When they came in Val said, "Les has brought a friend." At first John thought the person with him was a womanfriend of Les. He got up to say, "Hi, I'm John" when she said something and John suddenly realized she was his cousin, Susan. What a thrill to see her! The two had spent a lot of time playing together when they were children. It was soooo good to see her.

They sat down with a drink. Les has such a great personality it is always fun wherever he is. They laughed and chatted. Val said they were just waiting for four more before they left for lunch.

A car arrived and Val said it was Carol, another of his Mum's cousins and someone who visited John and his parents more than forty years when John was just a child. She was with her husband, Dick. John was so happy to see them both and was amazed at how young Carol looked. But there was another man who definitely looked familiar but John couldn't place him. He said, "John, you don't know me. My name is Je.. Je... Joh..." Suddenly John realized... it was another of his cousins... John! John had lived on the same street in London when they were little and John from Canada was 'over the moon' to see him and his wife, Sandra. He last saw his cousin in 1969 when John was first starting university. And they had always had fun when they were together.

The group, including Alan, Sandra, Jack, Amy and Jack's friend Darrell were all going to go out to lunch and they piled into a number of cars. They went to Tabletable Restaurant. Everyone had preordered their dinners and because it was a surprise Val had picked for John. She had picked chicken goujons for an appetizer, a roast beef dinner for the main and profiteroles with cream for dessert. He also had a glass of red wine.

It was simply the most amazing as well as fun time. It reminded John strongly of what his family life had been like before emigrating to Canada. The wit was bouncing around the table and John felt as happy as he has been in a long, long time. He felt so at home, within his wonderful family (his Mum's side). He felt wrapped up in the embrace of such wonderful people. It was almost as if his Mum and Dad were there again and he was sad when it was time to say goodbye. It turned out to be Valerie and Les' treat.

Family is something that you simply cannot replace with anything else and John realized yet again how lucky a person he really is.

TRB