Archive Article: 1999/11/19
A dozen or more female forms of various shapes and sizes (and ages) ground to a halt with relief after jogging and the gym for five minutes, and formed a circle as instructed.
"Right," said the trainer, well have Chrissie and, er, Margaret, yes the two English ladies in the middle for the first exercise."
It was a Tuesday morning, years ago, at the local keep fit class I had joined as a way of making contact with people in the days when my French was non-existent, consequently I hardly spoke at all.
Margaret joined shortly after, and, as she only spoke French in class, of course, this fact was a revelation – we were both English and hadnt realised it. Class came to a 10-minute standstill as we shot out a
barrage of questions in our native language, giggling. It was such a relief for me at that time.
Later, over coffee, we found we had a lot in common, not least that our respective partners had sheep and border collies, both not typical in the area. Dédé, who is French, had some land and a small flock, and at the time, little contact with other sheep
breeders.
So it was that we were
invited to lunch one day. We had pork chops by an open fire, and wine, and it all felt quite wicked being a
week day.
Naturally, after lunch the farmers went for a constitutional to survey the land and stock and compare notes while Margaret and I sipped Cointreau and gossiped, and the girls played. It must have been for quite a while and we were fine, until it was time to get up to leave. My then, very young daughters scolded me in the car for being tiddly. I could only agree and giggle. I sang for most of the way home.
Since then we became friends, Margaret (known as "Palenka") painted and we have one of her oil paintings in our dining room, and a portrait of Cherry upstairs.
Dédé and Tim are still comparing notes on sheep.In March, he rang to see if wed go bowling with them one night, it seemed a good idea at the time but after a heavy day, we tried to back out. Dédé was insistent, so we went. Margaret hadnt been bowling for years.
Were glad we did, we didnt know it then but she was ill, and this summer we have seen Dédé taking so much care of her, and losing interest in his sheep. The only help weve been able to give is acting as translators for Margarets family as Dédé doesnt speak English.
A month ago Margaret lost her fight . Now we are regretting all the times when we have said so often, we really must do something together soon, but havent – us because theres always something going on, and Margaret because she was busy painting for exhibitions.
Its something we all do but it is so very important to make time for friends – especially in these difficult times.