When sitting down and trying to research Mum & Dad’s story for the ‘book’, I used as many sources as possible. Mum’s pencil-filled diaries were of great help. They weren’t full of detailed descriptions or her deepest thoughts, but simply a record of her day. Never more than about 12 words, each entry offered clues to people and events some 90 years later for me to follow. Sometimes a single word would send me off on a tangent that I could get totally lost in.
Many days, though, were filled with just three words – ‘never went out’. Not the most helpful entry for someone trying to piece together somebody else’s story. It did show me, though, that going out, perhaps anywhere, was a highlight during those war years. Instead, it got me thinking each time about how she would have spent her time. They didn’t have a TV or the World Wide Web to entertain them, so the radio and newspaper would perhaps have taken their place. Mum was a reader and a knitter, so she could have whiled away the hours doing that. Household chores would have been more difficult and taken longer. There may have been chats with neighbours over the fence.
And so, a ‘never went out’ day didn’t mean nothing happened or that the world around someone had stopped.
That is how I was to feel about the day we had ahead of us in Florida. If I were to summarise my prediction for the day in a simple diary entry, it would probably read ‘moved to Kissimmee – collected Neil from airport’. But, of course, behind those few words would be much more, with more detail and insight into our day.
We were both up by 7.30am. On this final morning in Port Charlotte, I didn’t sit by the pool as I knew I had to pack away the ‘electrics’ – the various charging cables and Chromecast. The bins needed emptying and the car needed loading, etc.
The deadline for leaving was 10am and, by 9.15am, we were basically done, so we could slow down without any last-minute panic. This allowed us to listen to the game from Carrow Road and, when we left, City were losing 1-2 to Watford.
As we pulled out of the drive at 9.58am, we noticed a car waiting in a side street. Karen jokingly said it was probably the cleaner waiting for us to leave. As we passed, they pulled out and, in my rear-view mirror, I watched in the distance as they did indeed reverse into the drive. More evidence of Germanic efficiency from the owners!
We filled the car with petrol at the first ‘gas station’ we came across and set off on the 145-mile, two-and-a-half-hour journey to our first stop, Panera Bread in Celebration, for lunch. The journey was straightforward and Karen caught up on some of her missed sleep.
The football updates came through on my watch and I did wake her to ask who had scored the winner for us.
Outside Panera Bread in Celebration we sat outside in the agreeable 79°F somewhat cloudy weather and had our lunch. Jolly nice it was too.
From here, we drove to Publix to stock up for the next two weeks in the villa, making sure we had everything we needed for Neil, who was now well into his flight to join us.
Although we weren’t supposed to have access to the villa until 4pm, we thought we would chance our luck. It was empty and had been cleaned and made ready when we arrived at 2.45pm.
On Sunset Vista Blvd, we had booked the same villa for the third year in a row. We noticed it had had a few updates and seemed to have been professionally deep-cleaned. We were impressed.
We unpacked and settled in. At 4pm, when we should have been arriving, the heavens opened with a proper Florida shower, so we were happy to have missed that.
After I had set up the Chromecast, and with the rain still falling, Karen watched the Halloween Strictly show. She then cooked, or rather heated, some fish pieces we had purchased for our tea before we set out to collect Neil.
It took 35 minutes to get to the airport and we waited in the free South Cell Phone Lot for him to tell us to drive round and collect him from the terminal. We arrived just as his flight touched down.
According to Dr Google, passengers can take anywhere from 15 to 120 minutes to get out of the terminal building on a Saturday evening. It can seem a long drag as you sit there, not knowing what is happening or which queue they are in.
Neil was giving us 20-minute updates, but it was 75 minutes after landing before his bag appeared on the carousel. Then he still had to get through immigration.
It was a relief when we finally got the call to drive round to Terminal C. It was lovely to see him and have him with us. After a few moans about Virgin, even he seemed pleased to be here!
Three and a quarter hours after we had set off to collect him, we were back at the villa. He cooked himself a pizza that we had got ready for him before we all retired for the night, ready for the Kissimmee leg of this trip to really begin.
So, a blog entry of ‘moved to Kissimmee – collected Neil from airport’ would have sufficed, but it wouldn’t really have recorded the story of the day.
