‘Well, I have to say that was some wedding,’ Ivy declared as she sat sipping tea one cold and frosty February evening in Holly’s kitchen.
Holly nodded as she lifted the teapot and topped up Ivy’s cup, but not before Ivy had spotted the tears in her dear friend’s eyes. Charlotte, Holly’s daughter, had been married the Saturday before in Chilvers Coton Parish Church and as she had drifted down the aisle on her father’s arm in a froth of satin and lace, she had looked almost as stunning as her own mother had on her wedding day. She and her husband, James, were now in Weymouth for two weeks for their honeymoon and then they would be living in Nottingham close to James’s practice. They had met at veterinary college three years before and had been inseparable ever since and although Holly felt that she couldn’t have chosen anyone better for her daughter, now that she was gone, the house suddenly felt empty and time weighed heavily on her.
Gilbert, or Gil as he was affectionately known, Holly’s son, had left home the year before to live in London with his wife, Betty. He had followed in his father’s footsteps and studied medicine and was now working as a junior doctor at Guy’s Hospital.
Sensing her friend’s sadness, Ivy reached over to gently pat Holly’s hand.
‘It makes you wonder where the time goes, don’t it?’ She smiled sadly. ‘It don’t seem like two minutes since you an’ me set off fer London, green as grass. An’ look at all we’ve been through since, eh? Not that it’s all been bad, mind. But it’s hard to believe that we’ve lived through two world wars.’
Holly nodded in agreement. Ivy was right, time seemed to have passed them by in the blink of an eye. It felt like a lifetime ago since she had left home for the first time but she and Ivy were still as close as ever and not a day went by when Holly didn’t thank God for their friendship. Ivy had been her rock over the years, as was Richard, who she still adored as much as she had on the day she married him back in 1919. But he worked such long hours at the hospital that now both of her chicks had flown the nest she didn’t quite know what to do with herself.
She had counted herself very lucky back then that they had both survived the First World War but during the second war they hadn’t fared so well. It had cost the life of their middle child, George, who had been killed at Dunkirk and Holly had never quite got over it. It was still hard to believe that of the four children they had been blessed with only two remained. They had also lost their youngest daughter, Mary, to whooping cough when she was just three years old. Holly’s grandfather, Gilbert, had passed away in the same year, and for a time Holly had been weighed down with grief. It had been Ivy who had pleaded and bullied her out of the pit of despair she had sunk into.
‘You’ve still got Charlotte and Gil to think of,’ she had scolded her. ‘Pull yourself together, woman. Do yer think yer the only one that’s lost someone? I’ve lost my Paul an’ all, yer know?’
Sadly Ivy’s son had also been one of the war’s casualties but somehow she had managed to stay strong, although his death had left a gaping hole in her heart that no one could ever fill. Even so her optimistic nature had pulled her through, and supporting each other through their losses had brought her and Holly even closer together. ‘We still have a lot to be thankful for,’ she had pointed out and gradually Holly had come out of her depression and started to live again.
At Charlotte’s wedding, Ivy’s two daughters, Alice and Lucy had been bridesmaids and Ivy smiled now as she thought back to the special day.
‘That weddin’ cake were a triumph,’ she declared. ‘What wi’ rationin’ still in place I don’t know how yer managed to get a three-tier one. An’ the dresses … Eeh, they were just beautiful. Charlotte looked like a princess. I don’t mind tellin’ yer she gave me a fair old gliff when I first saw her come into the church wi’ your Richard. She’s the double o’ you at that age.’
Holly grinned at the compliment. ‘That’s very kind of you but I don’t think I was ever as pretty as Charlotte.’
‘Oh, but you were, just ask your Richard.’ Ivy took another sip of the hot tea as her mind drifted back over the years to when she had gone to be a maid in Holly’s grandfather’s house. He had been a grumpy old devil back then, but the years had mellowed him and by the time he died he and Holly had been as close as could be and she had taken his death very badly. Thankfully she did still have her mother and Walter, and even though they were now well into their seventies they were still both enjoying good health. She smiled again as she thought of how proud they had been at the wedding.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Holly suddenly told her, ‘I’ve been thinking of going back to work again.’
Ivy spluttered, sending tea spraying all across Holly’s snow-white tablecloth.
‘You’ve been thinkin’ o’ what?’ Ivy’s eyes were almost popping out of her head as she hastily dabbed ineffectively at the stains with a handkerchief. ‘But, pet, yer fifty-three years old now!’ she pointed out. ‘I think nursin’ would ’ave come a long way since you last did it.’
What she said was true, though no one would have guessed it looking at Holly. She was still a very attractive woman and wore her age well. There were streaks of grey in her hair and fine lines were beginning to appear on her face but her skin was still clear and she carried herself upright.
Holly sniffed. ‘I dare say it has but there must be something I can do! I don’t want to just sit about doing nothing. I’m not entirely useless and Richard works such long hours I shall go mad if I don’t do something.’ She still lived in the house that had belonged to her grandfather but, as she had pointed out to Richard, now the children were gone it was going to be far too big for them. The old cook who had served the family so loyally for many years had passed away some time ago and so for the last few years Holly had run the house herself. Keen to please her Richard had suggested they could possibly sell it and move to a slightly smaller place but somehow she couldn’t bear to leave it.
‘I’m sure you’ll think of something, then,’ Ivy said encouragingly, before gathering up her things and leaving. She and Marcus now lived in a smart house not far away from Holly’s so although Ivy still helped out with their millinery business, the two women were able to still see each other regularly.
When she had gone Holly wandered upstairs and into Charlotte’s room. It seemed so empty now that all her things were gone and after a cursory glance around to ensure that it was tidy, Holly went downstairs to prepare the vegetables for the evening meal to give herself something to do. She had lived such a full life, first as a nurse and then as a mother and now suddenly she was wondering if the best part of it was over.
That evening as she was waiting for Richard to come home the phone rang and her heart sank as she ran to answer it. It would probably be Richard saying that they had had an emergency brought in to the hospital and that he was going to be working late again, but when she lifted the receiver she was pleasantly surprised to hear her son’s voice.
‘Hello, Gil, darling.’ She hadn’t expected to hear from him so soon after the wedding. He and Betty had only left to go back to London two days before.
‘Hello, Mum.’
In her eye she could picture him, tall and handsome and the double of his father.
‘So is everything all right?’ she asked.
‘Everything is very all right, as it happens.’ She heard him chuckle. ‘Actually I’m ringing to tell you some good news. At least we hope you’ll think it’s good news. We didn’t want to tell you at the weekend because we wanted that to be Charlotte’s time but the thing is … You’re going to be a grandma. Betty is having a baby.’
Holly’s breath caught in her throat as tears of joy sprang to her eyes. ‘A baby!’ she gasped in delight. ‘Why, that’s just wonderful. When?’
‘It should be about the end of July,’ he told her and she could hear the joy in his voice. ‘And if it’s a girl we’re going to call her Mary. If it’s a boy it will be George for … Well, you know.’
Tears were openly spilling down her cheeks now. ‘Oh, I can’t wait to tell your father, he’ll be so thrilled,’ she gushed excitedly. ‘I shall have to start knitting straight away. I shall set Ivy on it too. She’s so much better at it than me.’ They chatted for another few minutes then and just as she put the phone down Richard walked in and she rushed to tell him.
‘How marvellous,’ he exclaimed as he hung his hat and coat up and pulled her to him for a kiss. ‘But no one will ever believe that you’re old enough to be a grandma.’
‘Oh, get off with you,’ she laughed as she playfully pushed him away and headed for the kitchen to put the kettle on.
He followed her, happy to see her smiling again. He knew how much she was missing Charlotte and how frustrated she was becoming at not having enough to do but now he hoped that he had found the perfect solution for that too.
‘So,’ he said, smiling at her teasingly, ‘I can have a nice long lie-in with my wife tomorrow.’
She turned from the sink, the kettle still in her hand, to raise a questioning eyebrow. ‘What do you mean?’
‘As of today I am no longer a surgeon. I have done my last shift at the hospital.’
‘What? But I thought you said you were far too young to think of retiring when we spoke about it.’
‘I didn’t say I’d retired, did I?’ He grinned as he took the kettle from her hand and led her to the table. ‘I’ve just decided to take another direction that will hopefully involve you and me working together, and I suspect keep you rather busy. The thing is, you see, I thought about what you said about this house being far too big for us now but you not wanting to leave it, so I thought why not put it to good use? And so in two weeks’ time builders will be moving in to make the drawing room into a surgery for me. The hallway will become the waiting room. You will become my receptionist and my nurse and I will become the town’s new GP. The old one is retiring and we’ve been planning this between us for weeks.’
The look of pure delight on her face made all the effort of planning this worth every minute. ‘And the final surprise is’ – he fished in his pocket and withdrew some travel brochures – ‘that while all this work is being done you and I are going off on a long, very well-deserved holiday starting next week in London, just the two of us. You can spend some time with Gil and our little mother-to-be and then we’re finally going to go on the honeymoon we never got around to having. Better late than never, I suppose. So how does that sound, Mrs Parkin?’
‘It sounds absolutely wonderful, Dr Parkin,’ she breathed as she nestled against him, her eyes shining. ‘But how did you manage to arrange all this on your own without me finding out?’
‘Well, I did have a little help from Ivy,’ he admitted. ‘She’d told me that you’d been feeling rather at a loose end and I thought it was time I did something about it. I know it’s not been easy for you with me working all the hours God sends but we’ll be spending a lot more time together now our children have gone. Are you happy?’
The kiss she planted on his lips was his answer.
‘I’m very happy,’ she breathed and suddenly the future that lay ahead of them was shining bright again …