Mum Grace in a family group
Mum Grace in a family group

Collecting Freda from London and taking her to see Dad and then Mum in hospital in Bury St Edmunds; a rare meeting of the four of us together after Freda moved to Devon as the government rejects the TUC move for miners’ talks and more Bhopal residents flee as they now burn off the spilt chemicals

Up and the FT whilst supping my morning tea. Down to a breakfast of honey, toast and apple juice. To finish the paper and then washed, dressed and out to the birds. The doves are hungry again and ranging further from roof to roof. An hour in the office checking the mail, but no messages and not much interesting. Off by car to London, turning off towards the Edgeware Road and down towards the centre. A lot of traffic and I worried about being late but time to park and shop at High and Mighty in Edgeware Rd for a new anorak. On to Paddington and I park at a meter and go in to check on the trains. Freda’s train from Exeter arrived about 1.00pm and I welcomed her and took her into the Tournament Buffet for some chicken and chips, then out to the car and across London. The traffic was horrific. We hit the weekend travellers from London and later, as we drove through Essex, the work traffic. But time for several hours to talk with Freda about her family, her daughter Stacey’s pregnancy and how her latest plan is to buy a small house at the bottom of the garden for her to live in. At least this is a sounder idea than the holiday house she previously favoured. Then to reminisce about our earlier childhood and I told her what I had researched of our background and grandfathers. She tells me that there were a lot of old papers and photographs when she was young, kept by our grandmother in Kentish Town when she lived with her son in law, Sid. Freda thinks that his son, Alan and wife Doris, might have saved the records, and I shall check. Eventually we arrive at Stanton near Bury St Edmunds and Freda meets Dad for the first time in a couple of years.

I get some eggs on toast and tea all round as we talk together. Dad is finding Mum very trying with age and illness, but has appreciated the rest for a few days whilst she is in hospital for heart tests. Off together by car to Bury St Edmunds and we visit mum together in ward F8. Mum was delirious the last time Freda visited two years ago and so it must be a few years since they met. Also, all four of us together is something that has not happened since Daniel was a little boy and we all met in the Rochford School House. Mum wept a little, then we were merry together and I think this joy might help her to better spirits and, I hope, health as well. They are now talking of a Papworth heart specialist coming to see her. I take my leave and drive home to arrive before 9.00pm. Di gets me a snack and a cup of tea and we settle to watch the television. News of the Energy Secretary being cool to the TUC approaches for talks and TUC Secretary General, Norman Willis, expressing his disappointment. The British Airways privatisation has had to be delayed to early summer amidst worry on the Laker litigation, airports controversy and the parliamentary committee delaying proceedings. This ends a rebellious week in the Conservative Party with the back benchers opposing local government reorganisation amongst all else. In Bhopal, 50,000 flee the chemical site as it is restarted to burn off the stored poisonous gasses. The stock exchange and British Telecom close at another all-time high.