From the bar
in the hotel in Dunoon, near Glasgow, we had a lovely view of the Clyde. It was
a quiet evening and we enjoyed a pint of beer not saying a lot, just taking in
what we saw: the Clyde and an amazing sunset. If you stretched your head a bit
you could see the smokers in front of the hotel. They were quite loud compared
to the quiet lot in the bar.
The door was
opened and an elderly man kept it open while a little old lady struggled to
pass it with her Zimmer frame. Because of the struggle they obviously wanted to
get a seat as soon as possible and not to walk across the whole bar. Politely
they asked us if they could share our table. Of course we had no problems with
that.
They were a
bit more talkative than we were at that moment. We got an explanation as to why
she had to use the Zimmer frame and the reason she would be glad to get rid of
it again. “I did miss her a lot when she was in hospital”, the old man said. “We
have been a couple for six years now, so we are very used to each other’s
company. We do have our own houses, but we are a couple.” My wife and I nodded
that we understood. “I have a huge house”, he added to make it more
logical. “Yes, he has!” she agreed. He
added more: “But I keep it very clean.” “Yes, he does!” she agreed again.
They were 92
and 91 and still fond of travelling, seeing different places and enjoying the
scenery. “I wonder where the sea is”, he said. My wife pointed in the right direction.
“Oh! I really expected the sea to be the other way.” He was silent for a little
while.
“I have something with the sea and the
oceans. I joined the Royal Navy in 1935. In the second world war I was on ships
that protected the convoys with goods for Russia. We would sail along till
Iceland where the Americans took over from us.”
“I do wonder
where the sea is from this point of view”, he wondered aloud. My wife pointed
towards the direction again. It surprised him again, he really thought it was
the other way. He told us he joined the navy when he was almost 15. It had not
always been easy, but he would do it again if he could.
My wife
asked him what his function was in the Navy. “I was a navigator”, he answered.
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