A Tale of Snow and Fortitude

As all UK readers will know we are having freak weather conditions with persistent sub-zero temperatures.  Yesterday we had our first heavy snow fall in Hampshire and it resulted in a rather wonderful little tale.

There is a lady in the next village who comes and helps clean our house on Thursday mornings.  I have always been impressed how she keeps doing this given that today is her 75th birthday but all power to her.  But yesterday she didn’t turn up.  Given the weather that is not surprising, but we a little worried as she has never failed to telephone if the can’t make it.  Also her husband is in hospital so she is living by herself.  So we drove over to her house to check she was alright.

There was no reply and her car clearly had not moved since yesterday – still covered in snow.  This was a bit worrying. Might she be inside but unable to answer the door?  Should we contact the police?  We asked a neighbour who said she had seen her walking down to the village that morning and also that her son had arrived in a Landrover looked in the house a bit later in the morning.  This was getting very mysterious.  Perhaps her husband taken a turn for the worse and she had got a lift into Winchester? At least it seemed there was nothing more we could do.

We heard nothing more until the evening when she telephoned my wide.  It turned out that she had been very worried about her husband and felt unable to drive in the weather. So she had decided to walk to Winchester to visit him.  This is 8 miles over remote country lanes with many steep hills in sub-zero temperatures and about six inches of snow.  She had got about two thirds of the way when the first car she had seen passed her and stopped.  It was her son in the Landrover who had been looking for her and even called out the police.  She took the lift but was adamant that she was not cold and would easily have completed the journey.

Sometimes I feel quite inadequate.