The Longest January ever…

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There are always loads of jokes circulating about how long January feels and, for the first time ever I can relate to them. It was always going to be a tough month after losing my brother-in-law, Geoff and waiting for the funeral so that we could pay our final respects to him. Having had something similar so recently with my husband’s mum, Audrey it was horribly ‘déjà vu’. 

But, of course life goes on and for our family there are many January birthdays. Whilst for my sister and her girls, the last thing they felt like doing was celebrating their birthdays, we made an effort to get together for my daughter, Sophie’s birthday on the 8^th January. Her stepson, Taylor had driven back from Cardiff so we organised to have our birthday dinner early so that he wouldn’t be too late driving back. In fact, we were the only people in La Sorrentina restaurant in Sunninghill which is usually packed to the rafters – it was as though we’d hired it out for the evening. The food was delicious and the staff great – well worth a try if you’re in the Ascot area.

After dinner, we all went back to Sophie’s house for the traditional chocolate heart birthday cake with just the one candle to blow out rather than thirty-five! I didn’t realise when I took this photo that you could see our reflections in the glass doors – it’s a good job we were all behaving ourselves.

The next small celebration was for Chris and I. Having met on January 5^th (which is my sister’s birthday) and really ‘clicked’ he moved in with me two weeks later. That was in 1978, so this year we were celebrating forty-five years of living together. Back in 1978 we would probably have been toasting with cider, although I was quite partial to Cointreau and tonic to be fair, but tastes change and as neither of us was driving I enjoyed an Espresso Martini in preference to a dessert after our dinner.

We were out again on the 21^st January to celebrate Sophie’s stepdaughter, Amber’s seventeenth birthday. Where do the years go? Amber was eleven when her dad, Reece met our daughter. It was also his birthday three days later a couple of days before we flew up to Scotland for Geoff’s funeral.

Although we’ve obviously seen my sister and her family over the years, geography has made it more of a long-distance relationship. She has a farm in SW Scotland which when I describe as being remote is definitely an understatement. We booked a hotel in Ayr, where the funeral was to be held which is about an hour’s drive away from Lynda’s on mostly single-track roads with passing places. I hadn’t realised quite how many years it was since I’d visited the farm until I sorted through some old photographs of the last time I was there. 

The little boy holding the baby in this photograph is my nephew, Deryk who is now in his mid-fifties, and his baby sister, Rachel is in her forties. Deryk and his wife, Hollie had travelled from Fairisle where they live and despite the sad occasion it was really lovely to see them along with three of their four children, who are all now adults. It must be at least fifteen years since we last saw them.

So that photo was taken over forty years ago but this one is actually of Lynda and Geoff on their wedding day in September 1968, both aged seventeen, the age Amber just turned – and they said it wouldn’t last!!! 

We have lots of photos over the years as you would imagine, but this is one I hadn’t seen before. It was taken at The Indian Palace, a restaurant in Javea where I used to have a house when we all happened to be holidaying in Spain at the same time. Geoff and Lynda are front left with me opposite wearing one of my most favourite ever dresses – I have no idea why I didn’t hang onto it, but sadly I didn’t. The woman at the far end of the table on the same side as me is the ‘baby’ from the earlier photograph, Rachel who is now the mum of two boys… the circle of life.

In all the communications about the funeral, one of the details that hadn’t reached us was the suggestion that people should wear something green. Although it’s a colour I love, I had nothing with me, so my sister suggested painting my nails green. My brother’s wife, Remi and I did exactly that and even Chris joined in, but just with the one nail. 

The morning of the funeral dawned cold but with beautiful blue skies, so Chris and I went for a walk along the sea front which is where we spotted these Christmas trees on the beach. Initially, we thought they had been ‘dumped’ but there seemed to be a pattern, so we asked a local if there was a reason. Apparently, it’s to help protect the dunes from sand erosion. What a good use for old Christmas trees and something Geoff would definitely have approved of as he was into conservation – one of the reasons behind the ‘green’ theme, the other being that he was a Celtic fan.

There was an amazing turnout for Geoff, from his family to lifelong school friends, former work colleagues from The Forestry Commission to fellow ornothologists – Geoff was a leading expert on owls. And no-one could find a single bad word to say about him because he was genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I’ll never forget his words of advice when I was seventeen and embarking on a career in ‘show business’. ‘Make sure you become famous, not infamous.’ He was a wise old owl!

Well, we are now into February which means I need to announce the winner of the January giveaway before setting the question for the February competition. Congratulations to Norma Rennie who wins a copy of the Charlie Mackesy book and to Beverley Dowse who gets her choice of one of my books for nominating her.

This month we’re back to the usual format and as it’s Valentine’s Day this month I thought the question should feature ‘love’ somewhere. My favourite Yankee Candle to burn when I’m writing is called ‘Snow in Love’ but on the label it has the French name as Amour D’Hiver. From my schoolgirl French, I remember ‘Hiver’ is winter, so my question is, what is ‘snow’ in French?

1. froid
2. pleut
3. neige 

Leave your answer in a comment below before midnight on 14^th February to be in with a chance of winning Valentine’s chocolate and a signed copy of My Mother’s Secret which celebrated two years since publication on the day of Geoff’s funeral and is my bestselling audiobook.

And, just before I finish, if you haven’t yet got yourself a copy of The Dilemma, now would be a good time. She’s been selected as a Kindle Monthly Deal in the UK for February so is currently just 99p to download. 

When I snapped this photo on February 1^st she had 530 ratings/reviews on Amazon and less than a week later has accumulated another thirty-three, the most recent review from Susanne Howard saying, ‘I really enjoyed this heart-warming story. Can’t wait to read the next one.’ I’d better crack on then.

Much love

Julia xx