I found Maria!
I just found Maria, my mother's former client!
I was just coming to the end of a stint on the Labour Party stall in the village, reminding passers-by about the Euro and council elections on Thursday, when I saw a woman walking past, and thought "She looks vaguely familiar, where do I know her from... oh my god, it's Maria!"
So I ran after her, still clutching my leaflets, asked whether she was Maria, and when she said yes explained who I was, and she said how like my mother I was, and would I like a cup of coffee? I said yes, as we were about to wind up the stall, and we ended up having a cup of tea at the health food shop (which does my current favourite Ayurvedic Rainy Day Tea). She insisted on paying!
Maria doesn't drink tea quite as fast as she used to, so we managed to have a good chat, and she asked about my siblings, whom she remembered. She seems well, and is living in Baguley. She's in her sixties now, and is very pleased about being a pensioner, because she says she gets three times as much money as she did for unemployment benefit, and of course she's got a Freedom Pass for public transport, so she can get the bus into Didsbury very easily. She says Sybil (the other ex-client I met when knocking on doors in a local election some years ago) has died. But she thinks the Trust Houses are still going, which is very good news.
I was very pleased to see her - probably for the first time in about thirty years - and gave her my address, so we will see whether she starts coming round for cups of tea again.
Also today I have bought the ingredients I need to make an unChristmas cake for my niece's wedding in July.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
I was just coming to the end of a stint on the Labour Party stall in the village, reminding passers-by about the Euro and council elections on Thursday, when I saw a woman walking past, and thought "She looks vaguely familiar, where do I know her from... oh my god, it's Maria!"
So I ran after her, still clutching my leaflets, asked whether she was Maria, and when she said yes explained who I was, and she said how like my mother I was, and would I like a cup of coffee? I said yes, as we were about to wind up the stall, and we ended up having a cup of tea at the health food shop (which does my current favourite Ayurvedic Rainy Day Tea). She insisted on paying!
Maria doesn't drink tea quite as fast as she used to, so we managed to have a good chat, and she asked about my siblings, whom she remembered. She seems well, and is living in Baguley. She's in her sixties now, and is very pleased about being a pensioner, because she says she gets three times as much money as she did for unemployment benefit, and of course she's got a Freedom Pass for public transport, so she can get the bus into Didsbury very easily. She says Sybil (the other ex-client I met when knocking on doors in a local election some years ago) has died. But she thinks the Trust Houses are still going, which is very good news.
I was very pleased to see her - probably for the first time in about thirty years - and gave her my address, so we will see whether she starts coming round for cups of tea again.
Also today I have bought the ingredients I need to make an unChristmas cake for my niece's wedding in July.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.