Aunt Janet's 80th

looking for glasses - packets of Embassy - William Hardcastle with the “World at One - cricket bowling in the kitchen and saying “what shall I do?” - kicking the rugby ball high on the lawn, one day crossing the telephone wires - walking on the golf course, Brennan a flash of red in the distance - the longer walk through the forest - the snowstorm for the twins birthday and staying up for the band - auntie Jessie’s "hello" - the brakes failing at the corner on the way back to school - the Riley’s running boards - the mini - Paddy - Karla, run over crossing to (or more happily back from) the butcher - Uncle Don washing up in the early morning - Sally sewing - Catherine finding Ian’s t-shirt under the sofa - the big log fire, gas poker and the inglenooks - the raspberries and the firewood shed - the pond at the corner of the lawn and the rhododendrons - the Bungard’s bungalow - Georgina and her hat - the International Stores - collecting bags of sycamore helicopters for a shilling each and then for love - tennis - golf - the cellar and the apples - Hungarian goulash - laying the table - the Imperial typewriter - the drinks cupboard and ginger beer - lying in bed listening to Merlin with asthma, and him running away - judging the diving at Brambletye - the smell of polish and the polisher - keeping balloons in the air, trying not to let them get behind the grandfather clock - the ten o’clock news on the radio as you went up to bed - hops fermenting next to the toilet - Christmas morning all together in bed - Jay’s George teaching me the best trick at football - the boxes of Tannock and James - a grass snake crossing the blanket on the lawn - carrying the trays with fingers underneath - the bracken and the potholed road - Forest Row parade - cocktails and croquet with friends in Church Lane - running to the postbox - Colin and Brenda and Fran and Nora and Alison - you talking to Rosemary about the contraceptive pill - the three tier cake stand and buttering the bread - summer tea at the end of the sitting room, winter tea round the fire - the sound of you filling the Aga - watching the Test matches - biking and adders crossing the path - the back stairs and the bell pulls - the Adeline Genie - trunks in the hallway

I was cutting grass in the orchard this morning thinking I must get a card in the post to you today or it would be too late. And I was wondering what to say. And thinking that for you it really is now half a lifetime away since you came to Shepherds Well and Shepherds Mews. For me the memories of there are of childhood - inevitably the good and the bad - but when I think back, the sun was almost always shining and there was tea on the lawn while Edrich, Barrington and Cowdrey notched up centuries for England.
And now you are going into another century, 80 not out, and, I gather, still waving the bat.

So the above is just this morning’s memories while mowing. Tomorrow I’ll regret all the things missed out, mostly far more significant. What I do know is that behind all that was someone who kept it all together. And who knew that the greatest gift you can give is the time to listen. The one technology I have always resisted has been the dishwasher - and I tell anyone who cares to ask why - that it’s because in my childhood I used to dry the dishes while my aunt washed, and that was when I had my best conversations, when I could say the important things, while ostensibly doing something else. I hope it doesn’t sound too odd a tribute!
Anyway, the long and the short and the tall of it is - HAPPY BIRTHDAY and CONGRATULATIONS and I’ll raise a glass and a toast this Friday to someone who - from my experience of having young boys to stay - rarely fell short of being a saint!