SWNOVELS Chapter Some difficult months later 1st July 1945
Mary Sands walked slowly along the grassy cliff top and looked out to sea. It was a grey overcast day, with rain in the air, but not enough to seek shelter. She had felt so desolate after Robert’s death last November. She had stayed at her parents’ house. Her parents had left her to her grief. They too felt dreadful at Robert’s death. He had been a close friend and then a boyfriend to their daughter since their school days. They had even told her that Robert had indeed felt like a son-in-law to them.
One day a close friend had called round. She was full of excitement. The war had ended. Germany had unconditionally surrendered. The troops were coming home. Her own boyfriend, Cyril, was on his way back. How wonderful to see her boyfriend back home again. How wonderful that they could start to plan again and do the things ...
Her friend had suddenly stopped talking.
She had suddenly realised.
She had seen the tears welling up in Mary’s eyes.
“Well, anyway,” her friend had said. “Why don’t you start doing something ... doing anything.”
So, Mary started walking along the cliff top again, out along the Naze. Admittedly it was the same walk she had taken during the war, when she patrolled the cliffs as part of the Auxiliary Coastguard, but now she took the walks for the pure pleasure of feeling the wind in her face. The same walk she took when Robert was alive. And the fresh air seemed to revive her. The sounds and the tangy smell of the sea seemed to cleanse her spirit.
She wondered how John was, Robert’s brother. He had used to accompany them on some of their walks. He had never spoken. She wasn’t sure that he could. But in some unfathomably deep way, she felt that John was conscious, was aware of his surroundings as they walked along the cliff tops. She couldn’t think why she felt that, but somehow, he seemed to be ‘lighter’ during their walks. John would be about twenty-eight years old now. She guessed that he still lived with his mother. That was where he was living when she saw them at Robert’s Remembrance Service, and that was only last November. She thought that maybe she would call round and see if John would like to accompany her on her walks. Maybe it would be good for him, and maybe his company, and the memories it evoked, would be good for her.