On this date twenty years ago we were expecting our first grandchild. The slight complication was that the potential parents - our eldest son and his wife - were living in Amarillo, Texas. My wife, Lorna, had agreed to fly out to help the new mother with the baby as soon as it was born. So, on Oct 12, 13, and 14 we were in frequent telephone contact with the US to stay in touch with any signs that the birth was imminent.
Late in the afternoon of Oct 14th, a Thursday, we had an excited call from our son saying - "labour has started". I quickly booked a flight for Lorna from Gatwick to Amarillo via Dallas that left early the next morning. I also booked her a room at a Gatwick hotel for that night and we set off in the car to drive the 140 or so miles from Norfolk.
We arrived at the hotel at about 10.00pm on the Thursday evening. I had intended driving straight back to Norwich where I was due to record that weeks Anglia Farming Diary TV programme the next morning. But it was an unpleasant windy evening and when I saw my wife had been allocated a double room I decided to stay the night with her and get up early the next morning to drive back to Norwich.
Its amazing the amount of sound double glazed windows designed to allow sleep while aircraft are taking off close by will do to mask all sorts of sounds. Lorna and I were blissfully unaware of the gale that had become more ferocious as we slept. It was only when I got up at 5.30am to prepare to drive home - and all the lights went out as I began to dress - that we realised all was not well outside.
I don't know if you have ever tried to find your clothes in a strange bedroom in pitch darkness. Take it from me its not easy. However, I eventually managed and still not realising the seriousness of the storm left Lorna, confident that she would catch her flight OK, and went out to find my car in the hotel park.
Even when I had to navigate around a fallen tree to get out of the car park I did not appreciate how strong the gale had become. Once out onto the motorway the carriageways were wide enough for a few trees not to bother me, especially as there was little other traffic. It was only when I switched on the car radio that I began to realise the damage and disruption being caused.
But I had a TV programme to present so I pressed on towards Norwich. The real problems started when I ran out of motorway and had to find a way through Thetford forest along Norfolk's single carriageway roads. Most of them were blocked with fallen trees and I found myself reversing and trying what must have been dozens of different routes. At one point a large fir tree smashed to the ground only yards behind me seconds after I had driven past it. It was a hairy journey and I was probably mad to attempt it. But I was obsessed with getting to the studio in Norwich for in those days, before mobile phones, I had not been able to let my Anglia TV colleagues know where I was.
Suffice to say I did get to the studio with minutes to spare and I did present the programme much to the relief of the producer. Lorna's flight was severely delayed and eventually re routed via New York. But she got to Amarillo in the end. And our grand daughter remembers her birthday in association with the fiercest storm in recent UK history. At present she is attending the University of East Anglia reading, among other things, American Studies. Happy birthday for Monday, Ashley.