It didn’t seem right…

It’s a funny feeling trying to enjoy life and yet be true to feelings lying down below that smiling facade.  It’s been such a sad time recently –

Firstly trying to console a granddaughter who’d been through a week of trauma waiting to find out where her longtime friend was.  She’d known her friend since their first day at school… from 5 yr olds in preps until graduating a short while ago at the end of year 12.  Always in the same class, going to each other’s home after school, seeing each other at the weekend.  All gone now when her friend and boyfriend died in their car in a nearby forest.  Two young local lives lost The rason why (or how) not known – the exact cause of the ‘accident’ hasn’t been released yet.

Then trying to cope with my own feelings of grief coupled with witnessing a family torn over their same grief.  My darling friend had always made it known that when the time came she wanted to be buried next to her first husband, her children’s father who had died young.  Her plot ‘was sitting there waiting’ she’d say.  There is a little problem in that when she remarried the family moved to another town and her daughters feel she should be buried here in Melbourne alongside the second husband.  After visting and paying my respects I left the girls in their mother’s kitchen in the middle of a rip roaring argument heated discussion over where their mother’s ashes were to go!

Over the past year or two my darling friend had become more housebound, missing out on coffe mornings and outings but loving it when others described their days out and trips away; videos and photos never seemed to bore her, she’d tell us we (plus travel shows) were her window to the world.

So when The Golfer reminded me we had tickets to the theatre on Sunday to see a show I’d been looking forward to, initially I was in that ‘not right to be happy’ mood, but remembering A’s positive attitude about not shirking and taking enjoyment from whatever means she could,  I decided not to wallow in my ‘it’s not fair’ state of mind, took some knitting to do on the train and put on an eager face.

And am so glad I did.

Using a stage with minimal set design, plus a few (continuously  rearranged) tables and chairs……a very small cast (playing a lot of roles) along with a handful of musicians told the story of the love and friendship shown to a lot of ‘unexpected visitors’ from away.  From away being their term for people from out of the Province.

Having visited Newfoundland twice, we’d experienced it ourselves. There’s a joke in the show that describes how (jokingly) the majority of Newfies have a problem with knock knock jokes.

“knock knock”……….”who’s there”…..”don’t know, but come on in”

Wrong season for Mummers but they did get an Ugly stick into it!