So in very sad news, my little auntie has died. She was knocked over by a Tesco employee pushing his trolley carelessly on November 30, which broke her hip, and she basically never recovered and never got home to the lovely house she lived in, in Norfolk.
She was 93 and had a rather lovely life, so of course one can't mourn that much. But all the same, I'm very sad about it. It's partly because she was my father's sister and so now all that generation is dead - which is very much the end of an era (and leaves us uncomfortably in the front line - us next...). I will also miss her for herself. She was unmarried and moved down south when I was only 5, so though I was her only niece we didn't see that much of her during my childhood. But she used to come up for holidays in the north of Scotland, with friends, all through my teenage years, and they used to stay with my parents on the way. And after that, she hosted Mr Life and me and then the children for lots of holidays, first in Cambridge and then in lovely Norfolk. It was a good relationship: she was semi-detached (I couldn't disappoint her) but friendly and caring and jolly. For years, I've written to her at least once a month, and since her accident I've sent her a letter every two days. And now there's no one left to write actual letters to. There's a gap in my life.
But still. 93 happy years is good. And I'm very glad that the whole extended family went down to see her last summer.
The other day, Granddaughter decided to draw a picture as a present to her brother. She chose to depict his very favourite kind of traffic lights: the ones he's always called "traffic lights up high" - on very long poles, sometimes over the carriageway. He came to look - and we winced, waiting for him to point out the flaws in her drawing, but he very tactfully said something along the lines that this was the best traffic light drawing he'd ever seen. She accepted the compliment gracefully.
Then she drew a (somewhat space-age-looking) bus, bus stop and - allowing her own interests a look-in - giant bunny.
The snow is almost gone, to everyone's relief, but it's cold and wet. The crocuses and snowdrops have re-emerged, the latter somewhat squashed. I had coffee today with a friend, looking out over the water. Roll on, spring.
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