rivers2cross

My local post office in Hambleden, and today a strange, but quite lovely thing occurred. The post office is 5 minutes from work and I have been coming to the shop for 20 years now, ever since we moved the business out to Medmenham. Of course over time staff come and go, but invariably they are always nice and very helpful.

The current lady behind the post office counter has been there for about a year. We always have a chat and usually a giggle especially when I am posting the teddy bears out. Today, I was returning an item to Amazon and when I entered the shop she said that they had been talking about me this morning! Lordy… It turns out a music producer had been in and the lady behind the counter was telling him about my fundraising record etc. Whether or not that could be a useful connection remains to be seen. However, she then gave me my receipt for my drop off from last week. Now we are on first name terms, but today she looked at the receipt she was handing to me and said my full name: Tim Darvell. She asked ,me if I knew an Alison Darvell. I said yes… Jennifer Darvell. I said yes… (my sister and mum) She said I know you and your family… Her name is Pet (Petula) and she used to ride at the same stables as my mum and sister when Ali was a teenager. Mum of course never left the stables until she died. Pet was great friends with Ali, but also Mum and she used to visit Mum on her horse, but life moves on and they lost touch with each other. I have to admit I didn’t have too much to do with the horses back then as I was a football mad youngster, so I didn’t really know the stable crowd other than be familiar with their names.

Sadly, Pet was unaware that Mum had died a few years ago of bowel cancer, so it came as a bit of a shock to her. Some tears were shed, but in spite of that it was so bizarre realising this connection we had after so long. I called Ali after work and told her the story and have given her Pet’s number. Hopefully they will be able to catch up and I know that this kind of unexpected event would have made Mum very happy x