When Karen was first diagnosed with cancer, I read an article by a leading oncologist suggesting that one of the few good things about cancer was that it gave people time to say goodbye. And I suppose that's true.
After the initial shock of the diagnosis, Karen and I turned our attention to her bucket list. Well, we ticked off several of the items anyway. The threat of Covid-19 combined with Karen's declining health ruled out a few things that might otherwise have been included. But we still managed to have a busy few months.
And then, inevitably, I was all on my own. At least, that's how it suddenly felt.
'You must come up to London,' Sandra Longley said as I farewelled her and her husband, Harry, after Karen's send-off. 'Come and have a little supper. Spend the night.'
'Thank you,' I said. 'Yes. That would be nice.'
It was about two weeks later that Sandra phoned. 'How are you?' she said. 'How are you managing.'
'Surprisingly well,' I told her. 'Yes. I miss Karen of course. But we knew what was coming. We had a bit of time to get used to the idea.'
'And are you remembering to eat?'
'I am,' I assured her.
'Good. And do you feel up to a little trip up to London?'
'I think I could manage that,' I told her.
'Good. Come up and spend a night,' she said. 'We promise to keep it suitably low key. Just the three of us. A glass of wine. A bit of supper. Nothing too... well... onerous.'
'Thank you. Yes. That would be nice,' I said.
'This coming Saturday, perhaps?' Sandra suggested.
'Saturday? Yes. Why not?'
Sandra and Harry had a semi-grand Victorian house in Notting Hill. Sandra's grandfather, a successful property developer, had bought the house years ago, just before Notting Hill had become trendy. According to Sandra, the house had been pretty run down when her grandfather had acquired it, but he had had all of the exterior weathertightness issues sorted. A new roof. New window sashes. That sort of thing. And then, after he had gifted the house to Sandra and Harry, they had set about restoring the interior to its former glory.
I caught an afternoon train up to London Marylebone and then, still not sure about the Tube and Covid, I got a cab across to Notting Hill.
Sandra and Harry always made me think of Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls. Sandra was a Chelsea girl. A West End girl. Through and through. And Harry was a Cockney lad made good. I had first met Sandra way back in pre-Karen days when I was having a brief fling with Sandra's cousin, Maree, another West End girl.
'How's business?' Harry asked as he mixed a round of gin and tonics. 'Is this lurgy causing you problems?'
'Not especially,' I said. 'We pretty much embraced remote working a couple of years ago. In fact, if anything, it has been a bit of a blessing. I now have an excuse not to make seemingly-endless train journeys just to attend a half-hour face-to-face meeting. Zoom meetings -- or whatever -- aren't perfect, but they get you ninety percent of the way there. How is it for you?'
'Well, I still have to go into the lab most days.' (Harry was a microbiologist working with one of the big pharma outfits.) 'I talked to my boss about getting an electron microscope installed in one of the spare rooms here, but he didn't think that there was enough headroom in the budget this year.'
'Oh well... maybe next year,' I suggested.
'Maybe,' Harry said.
Harry's gin and tonics were not for the faint-hearted.
'Granddad Tom,' he said.
'Granddad Tom?'
'The gin. I've only recently discovered it. It's made by a geezer who used to make ale. But then he switched to making gin. It's made to a secret recipe from his great-great-granddad. At least that's the story on the label. What do you think?'
'Well... it's... umm....' What did I think? It was certainly not unpleasant. In fact it was very nice. But I couldn't help but think that a couple would probably be enough to stop a bull elephant in its tracks. 'It certainly packs a punch,' I said.
Harry smiled and nodded. 'Fifty-two percent ABV. Most everyday gins are about 37 percent ABV.'
'ABV?'
'Alcohol by Volume. Also, I suspect that the recipe is pretty simple. Juniper. Obviously. Lemon peel. Probably from AndalucΓa. And maybe something else. Ginger perhaps? I'm not sure. But I don't think there's any coriander in it. Which, in my book, is no bad thing. I'm not really a fan of coriander.'
It was towards the end of our first G and T that Sandra asked me if I was circumcised. At least I thought that was what she asked me. But I wasn't sure. In fact, at first, I assumed that I had mis-heard her. 'Circumcised?' I said.
'Yes.'
So, no, I hadn't mis-heard her. 'Gosh... umm... a slight trim, I think,' I said, trying to make light of it.
'Not the full snip then,' she said.
How did I answer that? 'The full snip? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure how much I started with. I was rather young at the time.'
'Are you going to show me?' she said. 'I mean show me what you have now.'
'Show you? Oh. Would you... umm... like to see? For yourself?' I said.
'I would,' she said. 'Yes.' And she smiled.