Mamalade

What do you write when your brain has gone dead? My mind goes blank when I pick up a pen or sit in front of the computer. I’ve gone back to playing FreeCell on the computer instead of trying to think. I got stuck on game #12907 the other day. Those two red 8’s at the back are a problem! I tried it over and over until I finally beat it. Then I couldn’t do it when I tried again!

I’m having just as much trouble shaking off the effects of the flu. It keeps coming back. Everyone I talk to has had the same problem. Miles brought another virus home from Kindy last week and now Frances and Hayley are sick. It will be good when winter is really over!

It has been raining this week - the first rain we’ve had in months. If only it would rain out west where they really need it!

A pushy salesman

I was thrilled one night to see the lights on in the house behind me. My neighbour is back after a long stay in hospital. I phoned her the next morning.

She said she was glad to be home. “It must be my lucky day.” She said. “I even won a raffle just after I got home.”

Someone had come to her door and offered her a free ticket. They phoned her later to tell her she had been selected to have one carpet or chair cleaned for free.

I was suspicious. “That sounds like the people who came around a few years ago,” I told her. “They clean a little patch, then try to sell you a vacuum cleaner - and they’re hard to get rid of. I had a man here for hours. He just wouldn’t go.”

“But this man sounded genuine,” said my neighbour. “He’s starting a new business.”

I still had my doubts.

She phoned me the next day. The man came to clean her chair, she told me. But just as he was about to start, he mentioned the name of the company - the same one I had warned her about.

“Well, that’s the end of that!” my neighbour said to him.

“Why?” he asked.

“You’re going to try and sell me a vacuum cleaner!”

“How do you know?”

“A friend warned me about you!”

“Well, goodbye,” he said and left.

I’m so glad I warned her! As far as I know, there’s nothing wrong with their product, but I don’t like their sales tactics.

It all happened sooner than we expected. Dad’s condition deteriorated quickly during the three weeks he was in hospital. He passed away peacefully last Friday night, 2nd August - one week before his 88th birthday.

The funeral was on Tuesday. It was a beautiful service. Jan read extracts from what Dad had written several years ago about his life. Relle gave a lovely tribute, sharing some of our memories of Dad. After the committal, Shea placed a rose on the casket and Lea read the beautiful poem written by Henry Scott Holland. (slightly adapted.):

I am I, and you are you,
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name,
Speak of me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes
that we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort,
Without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind,
because I am out of sight?
I am just waiting for you, for an interval
somewhere very near…

All is well.