Getting Organised. Carolyn Caterer

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СКАЧАТЬ as a mildly interesting presence in her life, Abigail looked to her grandmother as the person to whom she had to answer in all matters of her life.

      Mrs Whitemead of course made it absolutely clear that Abigail was a disappointment in every single aspect. She was neither pretty enough to marry well (remember Mrs Whitemead was a child of the twenties) nor intelligent enough to be an independent and successful businesswoman. She had of course decided this long before Abigail had even started school. Thus the seeds were sown in Abigail’s mind, from a very early age, that she wasn’t going to amount to much. With this constant drip-feeding of disappointment and low expectations, Abigail was hardly going to excel in any area of her life except one; she fulfilled Mrs Whitemead’s predictions that she would never be successful enough to get into university and would instead be suited merely for the most basic tasks of being a secretary, due to her lack of organisation. Hence Abigail’s enrolment at secretarial college and her subsequent low level roles in a number of small companies, came as no surprise to her grandmother. Despite this inauspicious start, one day she was thrown into the path of her future husband and David Simpson became the dominant force in her life

      No wonder Mrs Whitemead thought that David was the perfect catch and he far exceeded any expectations that she could have had for Abigail in the marriage department. Most people would have realised by now that Mrs Whitemead was the worst form of snob, but of course Abigail had the disadvantage of never having a paternal grandmother with whom to compare her, due to her Father’s parents having died before she was born. With a naivety that would astound people today, she took her life to be pretty normal and her grandmother to be typical for her generation.

      It came as no surprise therefore when, ten years after they had married and it all fell apart, Mrs Whitemead was the first to blame Abigail for not being the perfect wife and her inability to keep her husband happy. She had no doubt that David was completely blameless and that Abigail had failed in her one task as a wife; to run a happy and contented home which he would be happy to return to every night, rather than find his comfort in the arms of another woman.

      Abigail had decided that there was no point in telling her grandmother that David had turned out to be a far from perfect husband, with a number of unsavoury habits, and had rapidly turned into the most boring person she could ever have chosen to marry. It was David who had insisted they spent most nights at home, unless there was an important work function or golf club dinner to attend. He always claimed that he worked hard enough during the week and needed to relax and take it easy at the weekend, but Abigail was sure that in reality he had so little imagination that, when faced with a life outside of work, he had simply no idea as to how to entertain himself other than to conform to the corporate stereotype by taking up golf as a way to further his career. His lack of imagination also extended to the bedroom; as a stay at home wife Abigail had plenty of time to read up on the latest sexual techniques listed in the magazines presented to her at the hairdresser’s and was more than happy to try out a few new manoeuvres herself, but David, when presented with these new options, physically recoiled in such a way that demonstrated he thought she was quite the pervert and ensured that their intermittent sex life dwindled even further.

      If he thought this was a way of punishing her then he was sadly mistaken; Abigail knew that there was more to married life than she was experiencing and she wasn’t going to give up lightly. However before she could do anything more or even begin to think of marriage guidance, David delivered the final blow to their relationship and exited with his pregnant mistress. Not before he had persuaded her that it would be a good idea, following their divorce, to revert to her maiden name so as to cause her less distress at the memory of their union.

      On this, Abigail was happy to oblige as a new start would not be as exciting with the baggage of her married surname and she threw it away with barely a second glance.

      In fact her divorce was probably the most liberating and exciting thing to have happened in her life so far and she was ready to embrace this new chapter with open arms. The move to Hampshire, where no one knew her, so wouldn’t have any preconceptions, seemed to be the perfect way to start her new life and she was full of enthusiasm and hope, though what she was going to do with herself once she got there was a rather terrifying thought.

      She had never lived on her own before or made her own decisions without them being criticised either by her husband or her grandmother. This new start was like the scariest roller-coaster ride in the world, but she was determined that she was going to do everything she could to enjoy it.

      Chapter 2

      Mabel Fraser stood up and stretched out slowly. While in her seventy-fifth year there was still plenty of life in her. She was careful to ensure that she took excellent care of herself, which explained why she was still happily pottering away in her rather substantial garden and enjoying the delights of her vegetable patch. Of course she used a gardener for the heavy work, but she was more than able to deal with most of the day to day stuff herself and enjoy the fruits of her labours. Second only to her love of gardening, was her love of cooking and Mabel took a huge amount of pleasure from turning the fruits and vegetables she had nurtured into delightful dishes, based on the sheer simplicity of what her garden offered up.

      Having lived through the war Mabel was a pretty tough and resilient person. Her marriage to Gerald had been long and happy. They were both on the stage and had met in a production of ‘The Seagull’. She soon had Gerald begging her to marry him and was more than happy with her choice, which produced two sons and at the last count, three grandchildren. She was quite amazed that she could soon be looking at becoming a great grandmother and felt a twinge of sadness that Gerald wasn’t around to share this with her. He had been devoted and romantic, all the things she could ever have wished for in a husband, and her only regret was that he had passed away, too young, after a short illness ten years ago.

      Fortunately Mabel had the great gift of being able to count her blessings, so rather than dwell on her life without Gerald she concentrated on making a new life for herself and had taken up a number of new hobbies; from watercolour paintings to learning Mandarin (the former proving to be far more successful than the latter).

      In Mabel’s mind life was always there to be explored and she was never one for letting her age get in the way. In fact she was enjoying the chance to flirt with the young men in their sixties at her art classes and they seemed to respond with enthusiasm, so much so that Brian Britton’s wife had pitched up one evening and warned her off her husband, much to Mabel’s amusement.

      Mabel had been very pleased when she saw that Abigail had moved into the small group of houses where she had lived for the past thirty years. It was nice to have someone new join her nearest neighbours and she felt that Abigail had something of an interesting aura about her, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on what this might be. However it was always good to have someone new in the neighbourhood that she might take under her wing, and she instinctively felt that this was something that Abigail was sorely in need of. Being an outgoing and forthright person Mabel was somewhat perplexed by people like Abigail who seemed so meek and lacking ‘get up and go’. Plus, she would have to get her to do something about her handshake; nothing gave a bad first impression more than a limp wet hand being placed into yours and Mabel shuddered at the memory of her first meeting with Abigail when she had popped around to see her with a welcoming gift of a pot of coriander to place on her windowsill.

      She had sunk back at the temerity of Abigail and wondered how she had lived a life that was so lacking in confidence, but that was a question for later. For the time being she would observe and be welcoming, in order to gain her trust, something that she felt could take a good deal of time and investment, but would in the end be worth every moment.

      Some might have been of the opinion that Mabel was an interfering busybody, but in truth Mabel found people fascinating and loved to share her accumulation of a lifetime of experience of living on planet earth, which she deemed to be her legacy СКАЧАТЬ