Many years ago I found myself on a railway station<\/p>\n
In a small West Country town<\/p>\n
It was as I was making my exit that I spotted an elderly nun<\/p>\n
Standing by the station footbridge with a large suitcase<\/p>\n
Excuse me Sister may I be of assistance\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The nun was very small and was beginning to stoop into old age<\/p>\n That would be very kind of you as I am afraid that Mr Gardiner is somewhat late<\/em><\/p>\n Then it would be my honour to carry your suitcase to the front of the station <\/em><\/p>\n I watched as the frail nun begun to ascend the stairs and for a fleeting moment thought of Heaven<\/p>\n The actual case was heavier than I thought it would be and I struggled a little<\/p>\n Although I tried not to reveal my fatigue that had been caused by my excessive travel<\/p>\n Mr Gardiner was waiting for us when we reached the station forecourt<\/p>\n He was a man of my height but with broader shoulders and together<\/p>\n We placed the nuns suitcase into the boot of the car<\/p>\n Now that’s done I am glad that your man was here\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You are a very kind young man so very kind<\/em><\/p>\n The nun then wrapped her sparrow like hands around mine<\/p>\n Bless you my child and may God protect you\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I watched the nun leave and looked at my watch<\/p>\n My friend was as late as Mr Gardiner had been so I decided to walk into the town<\/p>\n I must confess that as I descended the slight slope towards the main street<\/p>\n That my head was swimming a little as the nuns blessing had moved me<\/p>\n The main street was busy even for a market day and I became impatient<\/p>\n So against my better judgement I crossed blindly and immediately heard the the shrill sounds of brakes<\/p>\n A bread van had nearly run me over and the driver was staring at me with a certain contempt<\/p>\n I raised my hand and apologised and stepped back on to the pavement<\/p>\n Where I stood for a while before my thoughts were interrupted by my friend<\/p>\n I say old man that was a close shave damned dangerous corner though<\/em><\/p>\n A few minutes later we were in Blue Boar chatting about my arduous journey<\/p>\n The only difference was that I was not drinking beer a I normally did<\/p>\n But had chosen a glass of red wine as I had not yet come to terms with what had happened to me<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many years ago I found myself on a railway station In a small West Country town It was as I was making my exit that I spotted an elderly nun Standing by the station footbridge with a large suitcase Excuse me Sister may I be of assistance\u00a0 The nun was very small and was beginning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}