A Special Place
The invitation came out of the blue and couldn’t have come at a better time. I was twenty three and had been caring for my mother for the last four years until she died. I was alone and at a low ebb and when I was invited to spend a week at a friend’s holiday cottage by the sea I jumped at the chance.
The lady who invited me was someone I hardly knew. She was much older than me but we got on well and she seemed a pleasant peaceful person to spend time with.
Her cottage was close enough to the sea to hear the waves breaking on the sands and as the week went by we didn’t do very much at all. There was a hammock on the veranda and I spent a lot of time there reading and sleeping. We walked along the beach barefoot and sometimes we swam and afterwards sat on the sand in the sunshine and watched the horizon. In the evenings we sat and talked and from being little more than an acquaintance, she became my confidant and friend. She told me that she had known what a difficult time I had been through and she wanted to help and she said she often asked people in need of a break to come and stay with her. It was a wonderful week and when I went home I felt renewed. Even now I have only to hear the sound of the sea to be transported back in my mind to that special place and that special friend.
Time went by and my friend was no longer with me except in memory. I married, had children and got on with my busy life. Things went well for us and as our children grew older we often went on holiday by the sea. When the children were in their teens we bought a small cottage close to the beach not too far from where I had spent that magic week so many years before. The family loved being there and it became our special place where we could relax and enjoy being together.
More years went by and once again I found myself alone. I lived in the city but still kept the cottage by the sea and my children and eventually their children too, came and spent time with me there. I had many friends and acquaintances and sometimes I became aware that life was not always treating them well so I began do for others what had once been done for me. I invited people to have a week at my cottage. Often they were people I barely knew and I am sure my invitation came as much out of the blue for them as it had for me all those years ago. It pleases me to think that the kindness shown to me by my special friend and the renewal it brought me is being passed on once again.
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About the author: I am 75 years old and I immigrated to Australia with my family 45 years ago. I now live on a farm 100klm north of Sydney.
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