Auntie Bet

I came home to some sad news yesterday - Mum phoned to tell me that Auntie Bet had died, I think yesterday morning. She passed away in hospital, I believe, I assume having been taken there because of difficulties breathing and getting around. Noi & I last saw her in December at Uncle Peter's funeral. I was glad we were there to say a kind of good-bye to Uncle and feel bad about not being home at the moment. It was the same when Auntie Norah died and we were stuck here. But this is one of the penalties of a life lived overseas.

Oddly I found Uncle Peter's funeral a bit difficult to deal with emotionally. This was odd in the sense that he'd been very ill for so long, and we'd not seen him during that time, and there was a sense in which his death was a kind of release. Yet I felt extraordinarily sad that day. I think part of that was seeing Auntie so frail, and Mum struggling to keep up with things. In a curious way I felt part of my life was closing down.

I suppose this is because I associate Auntie Bet & Uncle Peter with so much that was so good in my life. I'm extraordinarily lucky in being able to remember my childhood with almost unalloyed happiness, and our time living near them, on Guide Lane, seems now a kind of golden period. Thinking of them, something I've been doing much of the day, I can't recall anything except the warmth & happiness I felt being at their house (where, as far as I can remember, I seemed to spend a good deal of time.) They were just lovely people. Auntie Bet seemed to encapsulate a kind of joy in living, a vibrant yes to life. Even though Noi met her only when Auntie was already well on in years I think she sensed that about her also. Noi loved going to visit them.

We'll never visit again, but it was great while it lasted. We're so lucky to have had that.