Day 11

Not finding a parking spot today at the gym I decided it was balmy enough to run, turned around and drove straight back out to do all the errands, after which I ran 3.6km in the forest and through the wet empty streets under water-logged skies, the only creature I met being a friendly sodden chocolate labrador ambling across the quiet road.  The thing I like about our town is that dogs are allowed to roam, there is no law against it as in many other towns.  You just have to attach a disc with your name and phone number on to the collar somewhere so that people can phone you if your dog wanders too far.  We have ourselves rung various people whose dogs we have found, and Molly frequently visited 'Kitty-who-lives-down-the-hill' (as she was known in our family) who took her into her garden to play with her Irish Setters Dylan and Clancy while she went inside to call me, again, saying, "Take your time, she's fine here."

Tim's mother died two years ago today.  We had seen her just a few days before, in the northern part of South Africa, on a luscious green farm where her daughter and son-in-law lived.  All four of her children had been together for a couple of lovely days, the first time for many years, with all the grandchildren and one great-grandchild there too!  It was a perfect summer's day, with a hot blue sky, and everyone had fun re-connecting and eating great food and sitting in the shade of the beautiful old trees.  And in the middle of it all was Elaine, the matriarch of this large family, a kind, sweet, strong person, with a gentle chuckle and the whitest of white hair, the epitome of a grand old lady.  She died how many of us would like to, after a long life, very suddenly, still independent, still "all there", still very present.  And after spending this rather amazing day with all her family around her. 

Skype is a brilliant invention.  Using skype I talk to my daughters and granddaughters twice a week, and even though we all live on different continents, they kind of know me.  Luna definitely remembers me and I make her laugh every time I talk and sing to her, and my heart is very full.  Ella was just a tiny thing when I last held her, so I don't know if she remembers me, but she does smile at me most times.  With Skype I have been present at bath-times, participated in Luna's first taste of solid food, read books with Ella, I have sung to her while her mother went off to find something in another room.  To counter the sadness of not living near these darling little girls, I can watch them growing and changing before my eyes, in that incredible first year of life, when a baby grows from a tiny helpless strange-looking creature into a walking, babbling little character.

So even though it must puzzle these babies, this strange flat grandmother, I am so lucky compared to my own mother who had to wait for the weekly Sunday night phone call, and letters, photos, and little movies on large videotapes, made for granny and grandpa, which arrived in the post every now and then, and the intermittent visits.

Apparently there are other VoIP applications such as Ekiga and Jitsi, but Skype seems to have the monopoly right now.  Ekiga used to be called Gnome meeting, which is quite wonderful.