Happy & Sad

Yesterday I had a really good day as I went up to Bedford to see my big sister. I say big loosely as she is 7 inches smaller than me..lol. She and my brother-in -law are off to Russia in a couple of weeks for 3 months. They are sort of church missionaries and that's what they go out there for. They go out twice a year. So yesterday I took the train to Bedford, direct from Brighton, 2 and half hour journey. We sat out in her garden for a bit as the weather was beautiful. At lunch time, my niece came over with her youngest and we went shopping. A handbag jumped into my hands so I had to buy it...:-) We went to pick up my nieces other 2 children from school and thy were very happy to see me... I left there at 20 past 7 and arrived home just after 10pm. A lovely day was had.

Now this morning I opened my e-mails and had an e-mail from my mate Pam, we have known each other now for nearly 23 years when I first started working at the Prudential when I was a young 21. We all got made redundant in 1993 and all went our separate ways, apart from about 10 of us who have been meeting up every 4 - 6 years since then. Over the years spouses have joined our gatherings including John's (or JLD as he was always known at work) wife Barbara.

The email from Pam informed me that she had received a call from John last night to advise that Barbra had collapsed at Vancouver Airport on their way home from holiday. She had Strep A and died within 24 hours. She was a healthy person and a breast cancer survivor. To say it was a shock to me was an understatement but nothing to what John and his family are going through.

I have made the following card to send to John and his family. The image is from Just Inklined from their package 'Help for Katy' I printed off the coloured image twice and just decoupaged the flowers.

I am still trying to get my head around Barbara's death but my heart goes out to John and his family as he is now home but Barbara is still out in Canada.

Rest in Peace Barbara.

Thanks for reading