{"id":1065,"date":"2022-01-10T19:16:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T19:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2022-01-10T19:16:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T19:16:19","slug":"caring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/caring\/1065\/","title":{"rendered":"Caring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A bell rang. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s Linda, Mum,\u2019 her son said. \u2018With her husband, Jeff. They\u2019re driving you to your brother\u2019s.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Linda?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hello, Aunt Violet.\u2019 A woman at the door was kissing her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018She\u2019s not been there in decades,\u2019 her son said. \u2018Good of Ronnie to deign to see her again, isn\u2019t it?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was chuckling but the woman kept a straight face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the car the woman said, \u2018It\u2019s Uncle Ronnie\u2019s sixtieth wedding anniversary.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Anniversary? Is he married?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018To Betty. Remember Betty?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

They got out and she saw a big house. It was in a nice area, very quiet, no dogs barking like where she lived. She lived on an estate. Didn\u2019t she?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A man was hugging her. He was old, his hair silver like tinsel, his face pale and lumpy. It made her think of the white stuff on the ceiling at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018How we doing, Sis! Good to see you. You keeping OK? Those carers keeping an eye on you? Come in and speak to Betty.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A stiff woman, tall, appeared and said \u2018Violet\u2019, like you\u2019d say \u2018hello\u2019, then just stood there, sort of unhappy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Do you remember when we were children?\u2019 he was saying. \u2018You used to get me into trouble. You\u2019d take my hand and we\u2019d walk through the allotments, the men shouting to get out, and then into the woods. Exploring<\/em> you called it. I was your little brother, and you promised Mum you\u2019d keep me safe when we were exploring.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Did I?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Now, I\u2019ll have to look out for you, won\u2019t I?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His face seemed to crumple like wrapping paper you\u2019d throw in the bin when you\u2019d opened a present, and he was wiping his eyes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Are you still my little brother?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman at his side, tall and faint like a ghost, was staring at her. Oh dear, she was<\/em> glum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Glad you could come to our diamond anniversary, Sis.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she was led around the room. Was it a sitting room? It was much larger than her one. Lots of people asked how she was \u2018after all this time\u2019. Somebody else said, \u2018It\u2019s less difficult now since Keith\u2026 you know. It was world-war three with Betty and Keith together, wasn\u2019t it?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We all miss Uncle Keith,\u2019 the woman who had been at her side all evening was insisting, \u2018don\u2019t we, Auntie Violet?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keith? He was her husband? What had happened to him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next thing they were in the car and back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You look happy, Mum,\u2019 her son was saying. \u2018Have you enjoyed yourself?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Oh, I had a lovely time. I met my brother.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Thanks for everything, Linda,\u2019 he told his cousin. \u2018And you, Jeff.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the couple got back into their car, Violet studied the driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Is he my brother?\u2019 she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He\u2019s Jeff. Someone who cares about you.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Does my brother care about me?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He thinks he does. Funny thing families, aren\u2019t they?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Is Keith here?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He died, Mum. Remember?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u2018Yes, a lovely time\u2026 Died<\/em>?\u2019 She smiled at her son\u2019s joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bell rang. \u00a0\u00a0 \u2018It\u2019s Linda, Mum,\u2019 her son said. \u2018With her husband, Jeff. They\u2019re driving you to your brother\u2019s.\u2019 \u2018Linda?\u2019 \u2018Hello, Aunt Violet.\u2019 A woman at the door was kissing her. \u2018She\u2019s not been there in decades,\u2019 her son said. \u2018Good of Ronnie to deign to see her again, isn\u2019t it?\u2019 He was chuckling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[597,598],"tags":[7,14,11],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-january-2022-the-promise","tag-her","tag-she","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sbrNJE-caring","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}