Christmas Newsletter 2009
6
Berne Avenue
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Staffordshire ST5 2QJ
22. December 2009
To all our friends and family
The autumn opera frenzy is nearing its end and there is a brief pause
in the rain drumming on the conservatory roof – it’s getting near
Christmas, and time to send our warmest best wishes to you and your
family.
However, this year our greetings to you are muted as we had a tragedy
in the family at the end of November. My sister and brother-in-law,
Anne and Bill, died together in Enniskillen. Bill was 88, Anne, 83. She
had suffered from dementia for the last ten years or so, and recently
had had a rapid deterioration. There was a lovely private funeral at
the end of November, when we were together with our Nephews and Nieces
and their families. We had not seen most of them for many years and,
despite the undoubted sadness of the occasion, it was lovely to be
together again. We ourselves are very sad – my sister had a profound
influence on my life, and on Pat’s; Bill was simply the nicest man I
shall ever know. You
will find an account of the tragedy, our Nephew, James’s wonderful BBC
interview, the funeral tributes and some photographs on the web site.
There will be a public remembrance in the New Year, in Enniskillen,
probably at the Integrated Schools that Bill did so much to initiate.
This letter would have been more subdued anyway since our year had
already been overshadowed by Pat’s breast cancer, which was diagnosed
in March. Happily, thanks to extensive walking in the winter, mainly in
the Peak District, but including an extremely strenuous climb of Y-Garn in
Wales, Pat was physically very fit, and able to take the
April operation in her stride. She was so buoyed up by Paul's visit on
the day of operation, that she left the hospital the very
next day, to be surrounded at home by all the lovely
cards and flowers from her friends. And a couple of weeks
later, Pat went with the Stephen
and Michael, who were visiting, and Gurnos Jones to see Stoke
beat Wigan! Further walking, mainly in Shropshire,
ensured that she was fully fit again for the radiotherapy in August and
the walking continues. Indeed, provided there is no remission, the only
problem left seems to be the continuing arithmetical challenge of
reconciling and coordinating the daily doses of pills and potions.
Happily, the family have provided us with much good news. Fiona, Paul
and Rosalind’s daughter, got a first
class honours in Maths at Bath, as did her boyfriend, Adam.
They are now taking a year off – Adam will return to an accountancy
job; Fiona is exploring possibilities at the moment. Felicity, her
sister, enjoyed her gap year, following school, by spending time at a
donkey sanctuary in Spain, and helping
dart cheetahs at a wild life park in South Africa. She has
now started a University course in Animal Behaviour at Bristol. It was
nice having them both to lunch in the summer, and also their parents
who managed to escape from their increased stable duties (the girls
have left home!) and were able to call in a couple
of times.
And Michael has continued his stratospheric ascent within Total – he
has been appointed Vice President for Exploration and Production for
the Caspian and Asia! Now based in Paris, he has frequent trips to
Kazakhstan and Baku, less exciting than they sound since they involve
loss of sleep on short overnight flights. At the moment his
responsibilities seem to be negotiating an extremely large, complex,
and technically demanding project with oil company partners and the
Kazakhstan Government. Unfortunately, Nicky has had to stay at home in
Canada to see James through his final year at school in Calgary, but
the family should be together again in Paris in the middle of next
year. Charlie and James are progressing in school and sport, James
playing representative rugby for the Alberta cubs. Will is apparently,
in his laid back way, pursuing economics at Edinburgh. Will gave
us a nice surprise by arriving for lunch when his father and Stephen
were here to see their Mum.
Our German
family continues to thrive. Stephen travels to the Far East
as often as ever, working hard to offset the effects of the
manufacturing recession; Connie is now in demand to translate
commercial material for firms in the Ruhr; Sarah and Timmy are
progressing through school and both have musical interests. Sarah sings
in a school choir, and plays the flute in the school orchestra; Timmy
is steadily improving at the piano, as well as being a competitive
footballer for his local club. We have had three very pleasant visits
to Düsseldorf and enjoyed
their visit here in the summer.
We called on my brother and his wife, Ted and Doreen a couple of times.
Despite their 86 years or so, they soldier on, largely thanks to the
vigilance of my niece, Susan and her daughter, Emma. My oldest brother,
Frank (88), and his wife, Ivy, are very lively and in reasonable
health. We have also had an unexpected contact with a second cousin who
had seen our web site. She kindly sent us some pictures of my father
and grandparents which can now be found there.
Pat’s setback resulted in the cancellation of a boating trip, and also
an excursion to see Mike's family in Canada and the Ring in Seattle.
However we had skied
in the winter with Christopher and Gwenda, and then had a lovely
holiday in Egypt in the autumn. We spent two weeks travelling
the Nile Valley from Cairo to Abu Simbel, looking at pyramids and
temples in the company of a most engaging group of people. We also
spent ten
days in Ireland, partly in Donegal, with happy memories of
our first visit together 53 years before, and further visits 45 years
ago with the children. In Enniskillen we visited Anne and Bill, not
realising we were seeing them for the last time. While there, we spent
the loveliest day imaginable with them, boating
on Lough Erne in brilliant sunshine.
The interest in opera and music continued unabated with visits to
Buxton Festival, a few days in Llandudno
for the Welsh National, and a number of visits to Birmingham,
Manchester and Munich. Unfortunately the lavish Munich productions seem
to be going downhill, in the sense that the directors seem to wish to
indulge their own whims, rather than facilitating and enhancing the
connection between composer and listener; on the other hand most of the
music is wonderful.
This year, Peter published what is probably his last paper, on
e-learning and the remote sensing of air pollutants using satellites;
it was nice to finish on two forward looking subjects. At the moment we
are editing a book on remote sensing which involves putting together
contributions from a number of friends. It should be finished early in
the New Year and then, since both of our contracts for work on
atmospheric chemistry have finished, we shall probably be at the end.
It seems to be the right time, since there is a surprising amount that
we would like to do at home, but we are grateful to both John Burrows
and Paul
Monks for helping us to extend our professional lives for so
long.
So an eventful year, which has turned out to be sad year, is coming to
an end. We shall try to remember the cheerful times and good fortune
we’ve enjoyed, and also to concentrate on the happy memories of Anne
and Bill from the past.
In the meantime, we hope that all is well with you and your family. We
wish you a very happy Christmas and good New Year.
With much love
Patricia
and Peter