When I was a baby, I spent most of my time with my mommy, I imagine. As a small child I spent most of my time with my sister, Judy, who was 18 months younger than me. Sometimes our friend, Rosemary, came across the street and joined whatever Judy and I were doing. I also spent some time with my youngest sister, Jennie but she was (and still is!) five years (to the day!) younger so couldn’t keep up with Judy and me for a good while.

As we grew up Judy and I spent less time together and the time we spent together wasn’t always pleasant! Judy found, at quite an early age (6, maybe 8) that she could make me cry! I really don’t remember the details but she seemed to exult in making me upset. She stole and read my diary; she stole and hid the paper dolls that I had made; she teased me with really stupid stuff like which boy I liked at school (Judy: I’m gonna tell him you want to kiss him tomorrow at school…Me: “waaahhhh”.)

We moved to England in 1958 and had to start making friends all over again. As we went to a school on the USAF base in Bushy Park and lived a 40 minute bus ride away, people we made friends with at school often lived too far away to get together with at weekends and during school holidays, so we spent most of our time together – again.

I met my friend Shaun in the autumn of 1960 and we spent a lot of time together. We were best friends for a year or two before our various interests got in the way. She went to art college, I went to 6th form college but we still used to go out together, mainly to a ‘club’ in Kensington where we could meet young men and dance.

We grew away from each other over the next few years but still spoke and had the occasional meal together. I had Veronica which meant I didn’t go out dancing and Shaun had a full social life.

So, for the next five or six years I spent most of my time with Veronica, which was a wonderful time. I loved watching Veronica grow and learn. She said her first word at around 8 weeks! Patty came past our bedroom and said ‘Good morning,” and was answered by Veronica’s, “Hi!”

This was the last time she spoke for a few months! In a notebook upstairs I have a long list of words and when she said them. I can remember that “shushie” was somewhere in that list.Shushie was her attempt at ‘horsie’.

The years passed – far too rapidly, though I didn’t think that at the time. There were multiple home moves, moves to a town in Kent, a move to the countryside, and back to the town and then to the seaside where we are today. I have worked out that I have lived here, in this house, for more years than I lived in any other of the houses (and flats) that I have lived in! That whole saga is the subject of another post to be written!

I started by writing about my young childhood, now I’ve come to my ‘oldhood’! In April I turned 82. Judy is no longer alive (she was killed by cancer just before her 46th birthday.) Happily, Jennie is still here though she has her own life. We chat on the phone once in a while and occasionally see each other – often at Christmas. She has 3 grand children, and soon will have a 4th! My own (only) granddaughter is 30 and I see her occasionally. We mainly keep in touch by WhatsApp. Veronica is working in Brighton. We keep in touch via Viber. She and Paul visit occasionally and I have been to visit them a couple of times.

I’ve not mentioned Julian! I suppose he is the person I spend most time with but he is out frequently, painting ‘en plain air’ on his own or with various groups. In the spring/summer months he often goes away for a week or two to meet other plain air painters.He’s been away several times already this year and has another week or two booked in Ireland. He’s out at the moment in Sandwich where his art group are having a weekend display (as long as it doesn’t rain too much and the wind doesn’t blow away the gazebo.) I could go with him but I am not a plein air painter, nor do I want to sit and watch other people painting!

I’ve never really minded being on my own. I enjoy going out to eat or to the cinema with friends, but I am very happy sitting here, writing this or reading a book or playing with Lola. In fact, Lola is the ‘who’ that I spend most of my time with, nowadays. She is sitting here to my left, trying to stop my typing so that I can cuddle her, so I’ll stop and give her all my attention for a little while.