No More Letters from America!

I was always an avid listener of Alistair Cooks ‘A letter from America’ on Sunday mornings on radio four. So I was very happy when about ten years ago I started corresponding with a lady in Texas. It all started when Robin had a project at school to get a pen friend from a foreign country. He decided to go down the email route as we had recently got a brand new fancy pants modem! He put his details on a pen friend site and got himself quite typically a girl from Russia. I was so impressed that I asked him to show me how to put my details on as well.

The upshot was that Pat mailed me to ask if I would be kind enough to write to an ‘old biddy’ like her. I was delighted and so a long friendship started. Each week I looked forward to 'A Letter from America' of my own!

I never met Pat, except to speak on the phone several times a year, (I adored her Texan drawl, she adored my perceived upper class English accent!) but we got to know each other really well. I called her my ‘US Mom’ as she was the same age as my Mother. She was feisty, independent and very opinionated, never married but career driven, spending many years in real estate and management of large shopping malls. She adored animals and called her pets her children. I learned of Mouse (a dog) and Diablo’s antics, shared a laugh when Harry the little kitten turned out to be Harriet! Adored Little Bear a rescue cat from the New Orleans’s floods. Many a waif and stray found refuge in Pats home. In turn Pat loved to hear news of my family, she felt she new Robin and Simon and shared a little bit of family life with us. We exchanged opinions, recipes and news and views. She taught me tactics to use in the workplace with difficult people. Commiserated my bad times and celebrated my good times.

Lat Friday my dear good friend died. Thank You my dear girl, it was great to know you. I guessed you would leave us when you became so ill. Invalidity you would never countenance.

All my Love from your English Daughter