A bit of a day! By Annie Try

It’s been a bit of a day. 

I’m writing this on Tuesday, 14th. It’s the third anniversary of the day my son died. It’s ok, I thought, three years is long enough to get on with the day, anyway I need to be in London.

I wobbled a bit on the train when, on checking my phone, I saw my granddaughter had put a photo of James, her Dad, on Facebook. I found one for her which I wasn’t sure she’d seen. I thought about the good times with him and kept it all together to go to my dance class.

But grief creeps in unwanted, so I became physically wobbly as well as emotionally but coped fairly well until my teacher reminded me it’s ok to be sad. I met a friend for lunch and that was good, in fact for a while I was able to think about her and her needs and chat about my book tour and how lovely it was that I had a great group of people helping me.

And then it was back to the station and homeward. I looked at some emails and answered the ones about writing. But then the train ground to a halt and it was announced that no trains could go through Cambridge because of a previous incident. At Royston we were instructed to leave the train and wait for a coach. The first arrived, to take one coach load. Then after another wait I was on the next coach which battled through villages and traffic jams to take an hour to reach Cambridge. I sat next to a lady who glowered at me, then declared she was very angry about travelling even before all this happened and would be grumpy. By the time we reached Cambridge she was able to laugh, had called me an optimist and was prepared to accept that we couldn’t do anything about the situation, except make the most of it. We waited for a train to take us onwards - when it came we filled it to capacity, only to be told after a lengthy wait to change to a different train as no driver could be found for the one we were on! Result: home two and a half hours or so later than expected. 

When I arrived home the Flossie, our puppy, had chewed her bed and pulled out the brown filling all over the floor. And the fish and chips bought on the way back from the station were cold.

But, God has been with me today, comforting me when I needed it, helping me to listen when other people needed it, by my husband being on the station when I finally arrived there, and the dog choosing a bed to chew that is already too small for her. The cold fish and chips went down a treat - I was so hungry! The lady on the train had thanked me for being good company and I’d thanked her for the provision of sweets and tissues. I thank God for her.

And meanwhile my blog tour has ticked away in the background with two lovely reviews and I’ve been sent a third non-blog one, so promoting my writing has continued, despite not being able to write on the train.

And tomorrow (today, 15th) is the day of the Christian Book Blurb podcast, where I am interviewed by Matt McChlery. But since that was recorded a few weeks back, I can concentrate on recovering from today!