September 2021
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<strong>September</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
57<br />
Similarly, my elder daughter and myself<br />
used to go to a French film club at Wanstead<br />
House. Our tutor was a lovely lady called<br />
Yvonne. When we got chatting, she knew<br />
my husband’s cousin as they played bridge<br />
together.<br />
The coincidences go on. Just recently, an old<br />
friend of mine named Sandra was out walking<br />
her dog and got chatting to a couple who<br />
had recently moved in. On asking where they<br />
lived, they said Colvin Gardens. She said: “I<br />
used to live in Colvin Gardens. What number<br />
is your house?” It turned out they’d moved<br />
into the very same house that she once<br />
lived in!<br />
A year or so ago, I spent some time<br />
convalescing in Forest Dene Care Home<br />
following a broken arm. And pretty soon I<br />
heard a familiar voice; it was a lady named<br />
Beatrice, and as you can no doubt guess,<br />
her son was a great friend of my daughter at<br />
Nightingale! (I feel that if your children went<br />
to Nightingale you will not be short of friends<br />
in later life.) Not only did I meet Beatrice but<br />
another lady called Christine I had not seen<br />
for 25 years, who used to work with me at<br />
Langthorne Hospital. And to cap it all, we<br />
were in the visitors’ lounge and I saw someone<br />
whose face I seemed to recognise. We got<br />
chatting and I asked her who she was. She was<br />
the daughter of my school caretaker, who I<br />
had not seen for 75 years!<br />
But the oddest coincidence of all took place<br />
when I engaged a new home help, Stella, who<br />
was Greek. She went shopping up the High<br />
Street, got lost and asked directions from<br />
a helpful lady, explaining that she had just<br />
arrived from Athens. By some strange chance,<br />
the lady she spoke to spoke fluent Greek! She<br />
and Stella went for a coffee together, and the<br />
helpful lady asked Stella who she was working<br />
for. “Jean Medcalf,” explained Stella, and the<br />
helpful lady replied: “Oh, I know Jean!” Can<br />
you guess who that lady was? Our very own<br />
Marian Temple!<br />
Late Beauty<br />
by Jean Medcalf<br />
From my bedroom window<br />
I can see into the heart of my tall old pear tree<br />
My father-in-law called it Doyenne du Comice<br />
Now in October the Virginia creeper twines carmine<br />
Blood red among the green pendant pears<br />
The creeper comes into its crimson beauty in autumn<br />
At the height of its power its leaves will drop<br />
Suddenly to burnish the brown earth beneath<br />
It is at the height of its beauty just before death<br />
I wonder – is this how it will be with grandparents<br />
Best just before death?<br />
Jean’s book To Everything There is a<br />
Season is available in paperback (£5.75).<br />
Visit wnstd.com/jean<br />
Please mention the Wanstead Village Directory when responding to adverts
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