 On
15th April 2011 Canadian Wendy Johnson and I celebrated the
anniversary of our first meeting on the Internet; a meeting
which changed the course of my life. On 15th April 2001 Wendy
emailed the website hastings.uk.net, (now defunct), with an
enquiry about the existence of a Lavender Cottage on the Ridge,
Hastings. She had collection of letters written by an English
cousin, Emilie Crane, who lived in the cottage, to Wendy’s late
Aunt Marion in Canada. The letters, dated between 1942 and 1955,
tell a touching and historically interesting story. Wendy and
I struck up an email friendship and she sent me photocopies
of the letters, an act that eventually started the writing career
that has enlivened my retirement years.
Wendy, and sometimes her husband Walter, have travelled to Hastings
a number of times over the years, but the spring 2011 visit
brought a special bonus that needed its own suitcase! Wendy
had printed out all the emails we have exchanged over the previous
ten years and put them in files; thirty-one to be exact. The
story of our friendship, her generosity and kindness to me and
my learning how to be a writer are documented in detail. (Could
this be a book one day?) Wendy had a hectic schedule during
her week-long trip to the UK: but on our anniversary we had
time to go for lunch in Hastings Old Town, fish and chips, of
course, to chat and exchange gifts with a lavender theme
(Click images for a larger view)
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