Yesterday, sister Pauline and her husband Geoff proposed to drive over to join us for lunch, in order to see Rachel and Jasmine. We waited with increasing anxiety for them all afternoon. At six we had a phone call to say that they'd lost their car exhaust on the motorway, and it had taken five hours to get it fixed. Neither of their mobile phone numbers responded to our calls, perhaps because of reception problems were they'd stopped. Also, Pauline had forgotten to take her contacts book with her - she hasn't yet mastered adding them to the phone memory. As is often the case, tech things that are child's play for the young are not so for those in their eighties. Anyway, all's well that ends well and Rachel will rendezvous with them on Monday at a mutually convenient motorway service station en route for Kenilworth.
I covered for Father Graham at St Samson's this morning, while he took a weekend off. An 8.00am said Mass and a 9.30am Solemn Mass, fifty people between the two services. Recently the church has welcomed an influx of young Indian Christians who have rented houses in the vicinity, working mostly as nurses - some may well be students. Their quiet intense devotion and warm smiles are an encouragement to this mainly ageing congregation. They seem quite at ease with the relaxed catholic pomp that characterises the liturgy. It's a rewarding experience to lead them all in prayer.
After a motorway journey yesterday, Rachel returned with our car sounding like a tractor. Thankfully it hadn't fallen off, although one bump would probably have seen it off. I had to drive delicately to church. Instead of meeting up with the family down at Riverside Market after Mass, I had to drive straight to Quikfit and replace the middle and tail-pipe sections of the exhaust, so that Rachel can drive a safe and legal borrowed car away with her when she leaves tomorrow. The service I received was, as ever in Quikfit, excellent, and so I was home for lunch in good time.
An expensive family co-incidence, don't you think?
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