Peggy
DAVID CAME TO SEE ME ON SUNDAY.
It’s been a while since he’s visited. Not that I blame him, of course. He’s been under so much pressure with work, and you know how Emma keeps him on such a tight rein; it’s remarkable she let him out the house. Honestly, I know I shouldn’t speak ill of my own daughter-in-law, but I don’t know how he’s put up with her all these years, I really don’t. I was a bit worried he was going to bring her too, but thankfully he called on Friday to say she had a cold and couldn’t come.
He was coming for lunch, so I went shopping to get all his favourites in. I decided to do lamb chops with mashed potato (creamy the way he likes them) followed by sherry trifle. It’s a while since I’ve made a trifle and I had to go to three different shops to try and find those sponge fingers; nobody seems to sell them anymore. I was going to use tinned fruit, like I always have for us, but then I remembered that last time I made it Emma made a comment, so I bought fresh fruit instead. Cost me a bleedin’ fortune, but you know me, only the best for my boy.
I tidied the flat from top to bottom – not that it was dirty in the first place, but I wanted to make sure it was spotless. I even dusted the old pictures which, between you and me, I usually skip over. It was strange looking at mine up close again. I walk past them every day but never pay them any attention when there are much better ones in the flat. But today I did stop and look at them while I cleaned and honestly, Percy, they weren’t half bad. Some of the portraits I did in the bus series were pretty decent, and there’s that one, The Dreamer, which wouldn’t have looked totally out of place in the corner of some small art gallery somewhere.
And I know you’ll say ‘I told you so’, because, to be fair, love, you always did say I had talent; I could just never see it myself. I suppose that’s partly my dad’s fault; when you’ve grown up with someone telling you you’re wasting your time, it’s hard to see past that. But also, I think perhaps it was easier for me to think I wasn’t any good, so it made the decision to give up a little less painful. Because if I’d truly believed I was talented, that I could have achieved things in my life, then it would have been so much harder to walk away from it all when I had to. Does that make sense?
Besides, it’s not as if I had a choice. Once I was pregnant with David, there was no way I could have carried on chasing silly dreams of being an artist. It’s different nowadays, woman have all sorts of careers while having children – just look at our Maisie – but you have to remember what it was like back then. Anyway, I loved being a mum, as you know better than anyone. And I love being a grandmother and great-grandmother too, even if they are on the other side of the world.
Which reminds me, did I tell you that David said Maisie and the kids might come back for Christmas? I immediately started getting excited, thinking about what presents to get the boys – it’s two years since I’ve seen them, so I have no idea what they’re into these days – and then David told me off for getting carried away and said it might not happen. Still, I thought I might pop down to Argos next week and have a little look at their catalogue. I know it’s seven months early, but there’s no harm doing a bit of research, is there?
Anyway, it was lovely to see David yesterday. He told me all his news. Apparently, he was up for some promotion at work, but they passed him over for someone half his age, which seems crazy to me. He said he might retire in a few years’ time, but Emma isn’t keen. And he gave me a gorgeous scarf for my birthday. It’s very similar to the one he got me last year, but I love it and you can never have too many scarves. I put it straight in the drawer with the others, to keep it safe.
David didn’t stay for lunch in the end. He said he’d love to, but he had to get back because they had friends coming over for dinner. So it looks like I’m going to be eating sherry trifle on my own for a while.