A series of unfortunate events

Ste Emeline
Yesterday's weather: cool, cloudy, some sun

Some years ago we heard a lovely story regarding our house. We returned from lunch with some friends and found, to our surprise, a middle aged couple and an elderly woman hovering outside. They had, it transpired, come to see if the previous occupant of a neighbouring house was still here as the elderly woman had lost touch with him some years ago. As she admitted to being 92 we were hardly surprised, but had to give her the sad news that her old friend had died just a couple of years earlier.

The car they were travelling in had come off the side of the road and was hanging precariously over the side of the hill facing into our garden, so while they were waiting for some breakdown assistance to appear, we offered a seat and some water to the two ladies. The seat was accepted for the elderly lady but they refused water and a more comfortable seat in our garden and sat by the side of the lane.

The elderly lady told us that she had been brought up in our village and had moved away after her marriage, to a village just 10 kilometers from here but rarely returned. She knew very well the gentleman in the neighbouring house and had even had her very first flirt in our own house - this was a subject about which she offered no more information.

She did, however, mention that the water in the well on the lane was supposed to be of excellent quality and that we should have it tested. We have only see it as very rusty water that comes from the broken pump and have to take her word for it's quality. It does seem to come straight off the limestone hill and continue in an underground stream across our land which can be heard burbling away when we have particularly heavy rain.

Unfortunately for this family, the breakdown truck then arrived and as the driver of the car assisted pushing it back up the hill, he fell and broke his foot and his wife carted him off to hospital with his mother sitting in the back of the car shaking her head as if to say 'Well, I've seen it all before, life, death, accidents...' but I do like to think that she had fond memories of her little teenage flirt in our little home.