Greetings
- July 14th, 2011
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Dear All,
Thanks for your terrific onslaught of support and appreciation! I have been on hiatus during a challenging, albeit relaxing, transition period in my life. It has not been the most fun all the time, in fact I’ve been quite down some of the time. Thankfully, however, I have maintained a patient and loving attitude with myself, knowing that ending classes and switching to a new job would affect me quite a bit.
I also had a fantastic three week trip to England and Scotland, during which I thought none about the EPI/GDV (!!!) and rested a lot. I was completely thrilled to visit my great-great-great-great-grandmother Flora’s gravesite. She was a heroine and I felt I absorbed very much by simply standing next to her. It was a long journey up to the Isle of Skye, up in the North-West of Scotland, and by the time I was hiking in the wind and rain, uphill, with my five year old son on my back, I began to get excited. We rode up on the train from the South of England, making a stop for a few days to visit my Aunt and Uncle, just South of Glasgow. The train from the coast of the English Channel took 6 hours, and it was another 6 hour ride from our relatives’ home up to where we could get the ferry to the Isle of Skye.
Beautifully done, my son, I thought, as we got off the train at 11:25pm in Mallaig, Scotland. He had rolled his own suitcase down off the train onto the platform, cheerfully and without complaining. Indeed, he had maintained high cheer for the entire train ride, even though they had no snack cart on this particular train. He simply ran up and down the aisles, visiting with people and entertaining himself happily while I read my novel and took pictures of the green, glorious scenery outside the window.
I had a hotel room reserved, and knew the hotel was somewhere near the train station, but really no idea which direction to go in. So, I maintained firm decision-making appearances for my son and said “this way!”. We walked towards the ferry station for the ferry over to Skye, our suitcases bumping our legs as we crossed the street. When it became apparent that there would be nothing more in that direction except for boats and water, we turned around, finding our hotel right next to the train station!!
The next morning, after a little shopping, we took the ferry across to the Isle of Skye. I could scarcely believe it was happening, finally, after dreaming about coming here all my life. My son loved being on the boat, as it was his first experience on any type of boat.
We stayed one night in Portree, and in the morning took the bus to Uist. Glancing at a map it looked like Flora’s gravesite was within walking distance of this town. The lady in the convenience store in Uist, who sold me an actual detailed map of the island, pointed out it would be a 5 mile walk. I smiled brightly as if I had planned this, and she remonstrated that she hoped we had macintoshes, as it was raining.”Of course!” I gleamed with another wide grin, and set off up the road she indicated.
Ten minutes later I was finding that the entire first mile, and it was looking like the second one too, were uphill. My son was sitting on my shoulders, hunched down and screaming, over and over, “Let’s go back!! PLEEEEAAASSE, MAMA!”, his freezing hands down the neck of my sweater. I chuckled to myself as the wind beat down on us, and the rain only made us colder and wetter by the minute.
I began sticking my thumb out when cars passed, to no avail for the next mile. Finally, a sweet couple from Italy, he Italian and she German, pulled over and gave us a ride. Not only did they give us a ride, they visited Flora’s monument with me, and drove us all the way around the island back to Portree. We were humbly relieved, to say the least.
So let us say, I have taken a break from the coralinsight mission to find the heroine in my genes. Happy to say, I think I’ve found her!
