Luckily she had an \u2018old school\u2019 road map book in the boot of\nher car. It had been there since she bought the car three years ago. Laura had\nbeen using her phone as a Sat Nav up until now but the battery had died and she\ndid not have a car charger. Her trusty old Ford Ka did not have a USB socket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She knew she wasn\u2019t too far away, but these country roads\nwere unfamiliar. She found the correct page in the book and soon pinpointed her\nposition. She was about 20 minutes away according to her phone, just before it\nhad died. The route looked fairly simple. She would be there soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laura was unsure what reception she would receive when she\ngot there. She had received a reply to her letter but it was terse and\nuncommital. She didn\u2019t expect to be\nwelcomed with open arms by the Auntie she had not seen for twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laura had a distinct memory of visiting the little village\nnear Preston with her mother and older sister when she was about six years old.\nHer mum had told her once about the reason she had no contact with her sister,\nAuntie Helen, and that side of the family. Twenty years ago their mother had\nbeen very poorly in hospital and had wanted to return to the home she had lived\nin for fifty years, to die in peace. Laura\u2019s mum, Dot, had been the one who\nvolunteered to go and live with her mother 250 miles away from their home so\nshe could achieve her wish. Laura and her sister Steph, aged 16 and 14, had\nbeen left with their father, seeing their mum only occasionally over that\ndifficult period of about six months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her mum has been very quiet on her return; it has been a\ndifficult time, watching her own mother deteriorate. Worse still, her sister\nHelen, after initially being grateful that Dot was prepared to put her life on\nhold, for their mother, when she Helen was not, had suddenly turned on her.\nHelen had accused Dot of only caring for her mum because she was after the\ninheritance. It was a ridiculous accusation of course. There wasn\u2019t a lot to\nleave but what remained was divided equally between the two daughters. But\nHelen had said many hurtful things and the rift grew wider as the years went\non.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laura\u2019s mum had died without seeing her sister again. Looking\nthrough a box of old photos Laura found one of the two sisters, arm in arm, in\nthe back garden at her aunt\u2019s home. Laura and her sister were in the background\nplaying with her aunt\u2019s little dog. It seemed so sad that the two sisters had\nnever been reunited; Laura had decided to visit her aunt and try to heal the\nrift. She would take a copy of the photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It had been quite easy to get back in contact with her aunt\nand to find her address. Facebook was a wonderful tool and now Laura had\nregular contact with a younger cousin she had not even met. After receiving a\nshort response to her letter Laura had set up a date for a meeting with her\naunt and cousin, Kate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the map book open on the passenger seat she set off\nagain. The house was quite easy to find thanks to the map and she was soon\nparked outside. Taking a deep breath she approached the door. Before she had\ntime to ring the bell, the door opened and a slightly younger, sprightly version\nof her mum stood there smiling nervously. The sisters had grown so alike as\nthey aged. Laura and her aunt tentatively embraced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCome in love, come in\u201d Helen brushed a tear away and led\nher niece to the kitchen at the back of the house. \u201cYour cousin Kate will be\nhere shortly. She thought we might want a little time to ourselves.\u201d They sat\nat the kitchen table with a cup of tea, and talked about Dot and how close they\nhad been when they were youngsters. Helen had been devastated to hear of her\ndeath, always hoping that one day they would be reconciled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was all my fault and I never dared make the first move.\nI felt so guilty that I had allowed your mother to give up her own life to care\nfor ours. I was selfish. I let you and your sister manage without her, looked\nafter by neighbours while your dad worked. My guilt made me lash out at her and\naccused her of all sorts of things. All made up by me. I\u2019m sorry Laura.\u201d Helen\nwas crying freely now, and Laura put her hand over her aunts and squeezed gently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt all happened a long time ago, so many years wasted,\nlet\u2019s not waste anymore,\u201d she said gently. \u201cMum kept all her photos of you in a\nbox. Look\u201d and she showed Helen the photo of the two sisters arm in arm,\nsmiling into the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got lots of photos I can show you too,\u201d said Helen.\nKate arrived as they were looking through the photos, and soon all three were\nenjoying each other\u2019s company with the homemade cake Kate had brought with her.\nLaura was sure her mum would be pleased that she had made contact with Helen\nand Kate. Life was too short to bear a grudge and Helen had carried her guilt\nfor long enough. Laura was sad that her mum was not here with her, but she was\nhappy she had gained an aunt and a cousin that she was sure would be a part of\nher life in the future. She felt her mum would be pleased too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Luckily she had an \u2018old school\u2019 road map book in the boot of her car. It had been there since she bought the car three years ago. Laura had been using her phone as a Sat Nav up until now but the battery had died and she did not have a car charger. Her trusty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-468","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Carol","author_link":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":null,"rttpg_excerpt":"Luckily she had an \u2018old school\u2019 road map book in the boot of her car. It had been there since she bought the car three years ago. Laura had been using her phone as a Sat Nav up until now but the battery had died and she did not have a car charger. Her trusty…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/468\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}