Remembering.

While Kate & Taylor were at dance, I bimbled around Newlyn thinking my brother might be about, but guess he's still at sea....so I took an hour out to visit Mum's old friend in Mousehole.

My visit had been long overdue and I felt quite guilty at the length of time since I last called in.  But it was just sweet, a cup of tea beside her huge wood burner, talking about our friends and family, enjoying the same old memories we bring up each time and remembering the people and the times fondly.... how her grandson who lived with her used to like to slide from one end of the bath to another, while she leaned out of the window telling me of his antics...how she and my Mum would stay up late, laying tables for B&B, then chewing the fat over the crossword in the paper...the men had long gone to bed by the time they tired of chat.

I felt glad to have made the time, promised her and myself I'd call again sooner and as I drove off to rejoin the hubbub of the 'big food shop' and my 21st Century rush I thought about how much I like to spend time with people who knew my mum.

Many years ago I met (through a friend of a friend) an old guy who showed us around his house. As we talked about his days working in Newlyn amongst the fishermen, I told him who I was and how I lived in Mousehole etc. He walked beside me and said that he knew my step-dad, and quietly he leant across and said 'I knew your Dad too' .... it meant a lot, then and now, as he would have been 88 this year, and those who remember him from 1969 or earlier would be a decent age themselves.