Left Sam’s around 11.30am to drive up to Parkgate in Cheshire. This was a special journey, to see someone we hadn’t seen since 1971.
After an uneventful trip up several motorways, we reached Parkgate and, with great hugs (and wet eyes) we met up once again with Chris who, with her husband Paul (who was in the Police Force with Ron), had been one of our dearest friends when we lived in England. It was so good, finally, to get together again. Sadly, Paul had died just before Christmas after a long battle with cancer so it was a bittersweet reunion.
Chris lives in a lovely house, with a beautiful garden and we felt at home right away. Naturally there was a lot of “do you remember…?” going on and it was good to talk about our children and grandchildren. Di was only 22 months old when we left England and so there was a lot of catching up to do there.
Chris cooked us a delicious dinner and then the three of us went for a walk down to what used to be the water but which is now covered in some sort of grass – it looks like a grassy sea, with glimpses of the water underneath, and is full of wildlife. Directly opposite is North Wales, where we intend to go tomorrow. We had a leisurely walk and then stopped for a shandy at the Ship Inn before heading home for some more reminiscing.
