Funny how things just pop in your swede, from nowhere, of things/places/days/people gone by isn’t it.
Out of the blue, completely at random, I had a flashback to an elderly couple whom we, as a family, used to live next door to, when I was growing up, back in the 70s.
Whenever I used to nip to the shop for mum, usually for her 20 B&H, I’d call at their door, which was always open, to see if they wanted anything fetching whilst I was there.
The elderly man slept downstairs and was on an oxygen mask, only taking it off to stand out the front of the house on nice days.
His wife did all the running around, shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc.
Their daughter and her children would visit everyday, a real tonic they were.
The man would cough, roughly, picture an ex-miner, with an obviously deteriorating lung disease.
The lady was as fit as a fiddle, full of energy and toil, just as I imagined all grandparents to be.
After a few years, we moved away from the area, leaving my sister behind with the new owner of the house, her friend’s dad.
About a year later, my big sister informed us that the elderly lady had simply keeled over and passed away, leaving the elderly gent, who had very little quality of life, all alone in the world.
I heard he had passed on sometime later the next year.
What a completely random flashback to have.
The mind works in mysterious ways…