Jak's blog
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This week I went to Peterborough with my sister and my new brother-in-law. We went to visit a friend who is more like one of the family. She will be 89 in a couple of weeks, which means that so far she has lasted a year longer than either of my parents, both of whom we lost in their 88th year.

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Kit has macular disease and can hardly see, but still lives alone in the rented house she shared with her husband, Len, until the cancer carried him off over ten years ago.

She reminisced and told us the story of how we first met. We think the year was around 1950. She and Len were thinking of taking a holiday and a friend she worked with recommended a Torquay landlady in a house on the hill above ours. They took the train and a taxi to this house. When they knocked on the door, a rather sickly looking woman opened it and said,

“Sorry I can’t take you. I’ve got to go into hospital.” They were rather taken aback at this.

“Why didn’t you let us know? We wouldn’t have come all this way.”

“It’s all right. A very nice lady has offered to have you. You don’t need a taxi. It’s very close. You can walk it.” And she directed them down to our house in the valley.

My sister and I were so young, we don’t remember it, or a time when we didn’t actually know her and Len. But Kit told us, “When we got to your house, the door was open and there were the two of you and your Mum and Dad, standing there waiting for us. And Blackie the cat too.” Kit is very fond of cats.

They came every year after that, sometimes more than once. I liked it when they brought Kit’s brother and his wife, both sadly no longer with us. They had our two double bedrooms and Mum and Dad squashed into the single. Sis and I had to sleep downstairs on camp beds, and Blackie always crept in with me and slept near my feet, keeping them really warm and cosy. He wasn’t allowed in the bedrooms upstairs at night, so it was a treat for both of us.

Of the six of them in that generation, Kit is the only one left. She has one nephew she sees from time to time, and she has some good neighbours. Otherwise she is alone with her own cat. I send her postcards that she can’t see to read properly, and I send her Christmas presents. This year I was able to take them.

Sis promised Len she would keep in touch with Kit, and she calls her once or twice a month, speaking for up to an hour. I can’t seem to do that.

We stayed nearby for two nights and gave her a day out at the coast. She’s still mobile and enjoyed a bracing walk along the sea front at Hunstanton.

We also visited the Caithness Glass Showroom and Norfolk Lavender and did some shopping. It was all low key and pleasant. I feel like I’ve fulfilled a duty that I’ve really enjoyed.

I wonder if I will see her again.