Connections - March 2019

Having departed from my happy shopping experience at "Blue Illusion" (excuse my spelling mistake previously!), Rick and I headed to Gracemere to visit a couple who had read 'Back of Beyond" and wished to meet us. This is an amazing story............ I was running a pop-up-shop in the Pines Shopping centre when a man was enthusiastically (that's polite) attempting to convert me to his religious views. I was caught...no-where to go...when a young lady came to my rescue, enabling me to break with the conversation. She quickly assured me, "I don't want to buy your book, but I thought you required rescuing!" "Thank you,"I responded gratefully.

As we struck up a conversation and she was glancing through my book, she mentioned that her mother in Bathurst was reading it and knew some people in my story.

Several weeks later I received an email from Karen, inviting me to share a coffee and meet her mother, who was visiting from Bathurst. I naturally accepted, and we enjoyed a lovely chat and coffee. I happily signed her book, which her friend from Rockhampton had sent as a gift.

Following on from this meeting came a further invitation to meet these friends in Rockhampton, who also knew several people mentioned in my book.

It is in the company of Norma and Barry Brown that we spent a wonderful afternoon, whilst enjoying mounds of delicious sandwiches, cakes, slices and continuous cups of tea. What wonderful country hospitality! During this time, again, we discovered multiple, mutual friends and amazing parallels with our lives.

It is the people we meet, like Norma and Barry, that have made this writing journey such a pleasure. We departed with promises of returning in the near future to do a Library Presentation in Rockhampton in April on our way around Australia in our caravan. Our day was complete with a visit to Rockhampton Grammar School to visit our two eldest grandchildren for the obligatory afternoon tea. Until next time......