The remains of revolutionary icon Che Guevara are returned to Cuba for burial. This as an Indonesian ferry sinks, killing at least 77 people and I was writing to my sister Freda
The remains of revolutionary icon Che Guevara were accompanied by the remains of his fellow comrades who were executed in Bolivia on 9 October 1967.
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This event marks a significant moment of historical reconciliation and national remembrance for Cuba.
Then to my sister Freda, Mrs Freda Butterfield, Little Postling, Goosham Green, Cornwall. Firstly, sorry to type this letter rather than writing by hand, but my handwriting is getting ever more unintelligible these days!
I hope that this letter finds you well and that news of Chris, Jane and Stacey is good and that you have settled back happily into the West Country life.
I am always being asked how you are getting on by your former neighbours and customers and often ask the same question of myself.
I do not think that you ever met Daniel’s girlfriend Isobel Page, but I have to report the splendid news that yesterday was Daniel & Isobel’s wedding at Cambridge Registrar’s Office with the reception in a marquee at The Hayling View.
I was detailed to organise the marquee, booze and portable toilets and it was very remiss of me not to add our family’s names to the invitation list and ensure that you and Alf were not informed of this happy event and formally invited together with an offer to stay up here for the weekend and the main purpose of this letter is to let you know and apologise for this fact.
Sadly invitations were not sent to Ivy and Arthur, Keith, June and Elaine etc. and I could not believe it until it dawned on me too late that I had missed a chance to get us together but I’ll try to be better organised for the next opportunity.
I realise that it is a long way and Chris’s wedding was low key and you probably would not have wished to travel, but you should have been given the chance to at least send them your greetings and also as we will not get many chances to meet.
In the event, the couple were particularly keen to have their friends witness the happy event and it is good to see Daniel so happy and surrounded by good friends. Their address is 3 Woodley Headland, Peartree Bridge, Milton Keynes MK6 3PA.
The other purpose in writing was again overdue since April and it is to say that Redgrave (Spar Post Office and) Stores is doing reasonably well and its future seems to be assured either under my care or a successor’s.
It has been uphill and hard work with much due to Sarah & Louise in personal terms but it now that we have drawn up the second year’s accounts, it seems that the business is at last worth something in financial terms having ceased to actually lose money.
I have obtained recent valuations that put a small value on the business in its own right, apart from the property, and so I thought it now right to share this progress, and the fruits of it, with you as it was never my intention to make money out of the deal.
You may recall that the accounts had you owing me some £1700 pounds when the dust had settled and the stock check results were reconciled and this must have been a worry to you. I was always hoping to write this off and to be able to pay you a modest dividend on completion of the task of getting the shop into profitability and actually worth something but I did not want to say anything or get your hopes up in case I failed to do so.
I am therefore now very happy to write off this amount formally from the company’s books and ask you to accept the enclosed cheque from Redgrave Stores for £1,263.73. It is a small sum considering the efforts you put in over many years but at least something has come back out of it.
Some quick news whilst I am at the keyboard. Our offspring are doing well, with Daniel now off on his honeymoon and Debbie proudly introducing her nice Scottish farmer friend to anyone keen enough to meet him!
She awaits her “A” level results and hopes for three “B’s” to be able to study Optometry at Aston University in Birmingham. Della is doing even better at school than her sister but will miss her after this autumn!
Diana and the girls are off to our Norfolk home for a few weeks where another huge endeavour has seen the re-building of the old Heronshaw with the thatched roof due on any day now.
I am off in the boat off of the Norfolk coast and we both hope to enjoy the weather and a rest after our exhausting wedding reception arrangements.
Hope to hear your news before long and to here that you and yours are well. David