Leaving England

Saturday June 5, 2010

Well, I successfully made the jump from England to Vienna. Arthur and May dropped me by the train station in Maidstone so I could catch the 9:55 train to London Victoria. May waited with me on the platform, it was a final ceremonial moment. As the train neared its approached, we walked further down the platform where it was less crowded. The train pulled up, we said our final good byes and I piled onto the train with luggage intow. I found a seat for myself and my luggage, and all the while May stood on the platform, waiting for my departure. As the conductor signaled for the train to pull away May waived, a final good bye, neither of us knowing when we'll see eachother again.

Now we will once again resort to the endless family letter writing at Christmas and holidays. But for me I will see these letters in a new light. I can visualize the post in town from where she sends the letters off at. I can visualise the sitting room where she answers the phone when we call from Grams. I can now visualize the town of Maidstone, as I saw it through her historic eyes, when she mentions the events of her life in her letters. Another chapter of my family history has come to life and been written to life in my eyes. What a lucky boy I am. May took the time to walk me through Maidstone, as it was when she grew up, as it was when my grandparents and father lived there, and as it is now and what it has become. She took the time to help me discover more about my family. We discovered more about eachother as we shared tea time, and garden chats, and trips on the local bus and train. I shared my passion for architecture and music with her, and she listened intently. She proudly introduced me to all of her friends as her relative from America.

She is an amazing lady who is the epitiomy of everything I want to be when I am 86; active, involved, and a spitfire. She has lived through a lot. Her brother was killed in the prime of his life, after surviving the events at Dunkirk during WWII, her fieance was killed in the war, but she found love in a husband, and step children who adore her, and now grand kids who adore her. She lives out her faith as she faithfully serves her church, St. Andrew's, and the community it reaches through bake sales, and coffee meetings, and flower committees. She serves her family as she tends the grave of her brother in the graveyard at St Margaurete. She has lived life, and is going to go on living it till the end.



I hugged her long and hard knowing I may never see her again, but she has taught me much and for that I am grateful. With so much love in her heart she welcomed me into her home, made me feel welcome, and made me family. What a lucky boy I am to be loved my family, even when I have only just met them.

Hebrews 12:1-3
¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.