A reason to remain, just an anecdote about “life”, when all”s said and done …a happy little Sunday afternoon, at peace with the world around:I was pottering, cleaning the “lavoir” the ancient washing place next to my house, in my wellies in the water, when a couple out for a walk stopped for a chat.

I began to give them a little historical tour of the water course, the well and local history and said I had something in writing somewhere. The lady asked me if I had email
I asked them into my house while I fetched a piece of paper to jot it down, and we began to chat:

Where was I from? “England, the North.”

“Oh” said she, ” I have a daughter near Manchester…and family in Canterbury.”

“Oh, my daughter’s in Scotland. She was born in Berlin. Actually I lived in Germany for over thirty years.” ( I always knock a few years off forestalling people’s arithmetic”

Oh, I have family and friends in Germany, too”, she smiled.

We swapped names and addresses.

I peered at her surname, without my specs. “Brasparts?” I asked. “Like Saint Michel en Brasparts ?” ( a Breton village).

“No, without an s”, she replied. “It’s not a local name. My partner’s French, from round here “, (He smiled and nodded). “I’m Belgian. I’ve only been here for three years … and don’t know it so well yet.”

I’m meeting Jacqueline for lunch at the Golf Club tomorrow. I think she’ll enjoy discovering a bit more of her new “home”.

France, Germany, England, Belgium …

Yesterday I was telling my Dutch friend Margreet, up the lane, ( They just have a holiday home here) about this happy little meeting and perhaps new friends.

A few years ago, again in my wellies, cleaning the stream at the bottom of my garden I stubbed my toe against an unexploded mortar bomb from WW2 ..of the type the British dropped by parachute to supply the Resistance against Hitler’s occupying Nazi forces. “Let us not forget”! Let’s not jettison or sabotage the peace project that has endured for a life-span!

Thank to Carol Weitz a member of one of the SY2E – Remain in the EU groups