Page 84 - Through a glass brightly

Thursday, 14th May
From Maggie R. at 06.17
From Daphne at 10.45
It’s been lovely getting all your emails and reminders of old times. The book is a great idea. Malcolm and I are both staying healthy and are extremely fortunate in having a large house and garden in Bradford on Avon. We have several walks we can enjoy literally from our doorstep, although at the moment they can’t include our usual farm shop coffee and cake stops or pub visits. Gardening has been keeping us very busy also daily emails from our church choir master, vicar and bishop as well as U3A groups, hence the delay in responding to you all. Also (first world problem) I have been paying my excellent cleaner, but having to do my own not very efficient cleaning myself - grrr! We also miss visiting Bath with its excellent art galleries, theatre and restaurants but were lucky in that we celebrated Malcolm’s 80th birthday on March 1st with our daughter Janey, her partner and grandchildren Oscar 13 and Lily 12 with lunch in Salisbury just before lockdown. We had planned to spend Christmas with our son and family in Australia but this now looks unlikely. Our son lives in Manly Vale, Sydney very near Freshwater where apparently Molly Watts lives.
Now some comments on school memories.
The Queen’s visit - I remember us lining up just outside the dining hall, I felt very self- conscious in shapeless homemade shorts. My mother told me the fabulous red velvet coat and hat she wore had been made for her recent visit to Canada - the full skirted coat made her waist look very slim. We had all practiced curtseying and saying ‘Yes M’am’ in case she spoke to
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