July 28th - a memorable date

This date is a significant one to me in several ways.

Firstly, it was my Grandma's birthday. She was born in 1898 so would have been 111 today. She died in 1991, age 93, and, like my mother, was very fit until at least her late eighties.

Secondly, it's my second cousin Frank's sixtieth birthday. A very Happy Birthday to him - - though it's worrying when people whom I remember as children are suddenly sixty. I hope that Frank and his lovely wife Lesley will have a great day.

Thirdly, Honey, whose blog Honey Letting Off Steam I've read for some years now, is having her baby Pema today, ten weeks early. I got to know Honey slightly through her blog - she was living in Belgium at the time - and then to my astonishment found out that she's a friend of Gareth's mum!

Sadly, it's not an ordinary birth as Honey is extremely ill with cancer and has been writing about it, very movingly, on her blog. She has a fairly new partner and young children too. I can't imagine what it must be like for her, and I wish her, and her family, all the very best. I'm thinking of her a lot at the moment, and particularly today.