A mystery…

Cycled down to see Don and Jennie today. Seemed more sensible than risking the car windows. Saw two broods of ducklings with their respective mother ducks crossing the road in front of me. May even have saved a life, since one brood was being threatened by a big black crow, flapping ominously around these tiny bundles of feather down. It took of in a hurry at the approach of my bike so mother and babes were able to scurry to safety, disappearing rapidly in the long grass at the side of the road.

The other brood, later on, were waddling in a sedate line behind Mum, but again, disappeared like lightening at my approach.

Don and Jennie are a lovely couple who celebrated their sixty-seventh wedding anniversary earlier this year. They met when Jennie was twelve and playing the piano at the Methodist Sunday School. Don, aged thirteen, had just moved into the area with his parents and it was love at first sight. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But both of them have been ill for a month or two, hence my visit. Happily they’re both improving, but Don told me an interesting story.

Last Sunday morning, he said, a neighbour whom they know only by sight, fetched up on their doorstep in great distress.

“I haven’t heard the bells,” she gulped, between sobs. “I’ve been listening for the bells because I must see the Rector. But they haven’t rung. They always ring on Sunday mornings. Why haven’t they rung?”

Don explained that it was a fifth Sunday, so all the churches in the group had gathered elsewhere for a service together. He asked if he could help.

“It’s my son,” she wept. “He’s died. And the Rector married them. I must see the Rector.”

Don was shocked and gave her my address and telephone number. Now he was looking at me expectantly, thinking I had called because of this. But here’s the mystery. She hadn’t contacted me or left any messages and I knew nothing of all this.

So I called on her after I’d seen Don and Jennie, but there was no reply. I pushed a card through the door, but so far no response to that either.

Don couldn’t remember her name, so now I’m a bit stumped. It’s a real mystery, especially as no-one else has said a word. Usually anything like that is round a village like wildfire, but on this occasion, nothing.

I think I’ll look up the weddings for the last five years and see if I can get a handle on all this. What a terrible thing to happen.

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