h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My dearest Rose. I have just read your response to WP in which you mention how your husband died. I just wanted to say that my heart really goes out to you in what must have been a dreadful, dreadful time. It is a testament to your kind nature and a testament to him too that you have not become bitter and twisted after what happened. Yours seems to be such a loving nature, it must be hard to live without him and I am sure you miss him every day. My heart goes out to you and so does my hand.

I have been with my old man about 18 years and recently we got ourselves into a bit of a rut which made us short and unappreciative of each other. Thankfully, we have got over that and I am back where I was before which is not wanting to be without him. Whatever our men are, the important thing is their being THERE isn't it? There was a big to-do on the Board a couple of months back about Lockerbie and I wrote a response and deleted it several times and in the end decided to say nothing, but the gist was that my hubbie was the man who missed the flight... ... there's a kind of panic that grips the heart when you think about the man being gone. I am saying all this I suppose because I want to show what I feel for you even though I know it cannot be a tenth of the reality which is what you have gone through. You always take the trouble to say positive and kind things to people on the Board. You're a good woman who must have known a lot of distress and I just wanted to say that there are people who care and I care and I thank you for being you and I can see your strength.

PS I do not know your beliefs so I cannot go on about God and all that. But I think there is some place better in which he waits for you, I mean that and do not just say that to be nice.

Love and take care.
You are a good woman.
Fred (Dids)
Hugs and hand holds to you. Cup of tea and an Irish coffee.

Dear Freda Thankyou from the bottom of my heart for your loving and kind message I wasn't going to say anything 'but ' I let Bills message 'get to me' when he said people involved with guns are usually involved in crime.

I don't want him to know that he 'got to me' though cos the type of person he is,he will be merciless in using it in future to goad me with. When WP said about her cousin,it made me realise that it was 'alright ' to talk about it,something I've never done

I do miss him, he lived for 3 years after,during which time I nursed him. My children were only 12& 14 when it happened, we lost our home cos it went with the job&I refused to take him back to the estate, after he came out of hospital we went to moms

I'm so sorry to hear that you had all that upset and worry over your hubby when Lockerbie happened, it must have been really, really frighteningI am so pleased&happy for you and him,that he missed that dreadful flight

I do remember reading at the time that there was a gentleman who had missed the flight and I think I remember his wife saying how lucky she was&how pleased she was that he was alright,but I do remember she was dreadfully upset.Can I ask, was that lady you

I am pleased that you and your hubby are happy again, that warms my heart I think everybody goes through a ' rough patch' from time to time. Thank you again for your very kind&loving message,you have made me feel so very much betterAll love Rose

Good morning! How are you today? I have just been to your Mona Lisa (?) poem.

Thanks for replies to the above, thought I'd better verify the story here. I think I remember the news story you mention and no, that was not us. Cut a long story short... He and a bloke working for a sister company both travelled on courier flights bought together by their employers. In those days anyway, courier flights were restricted to one ticket per courier co (except for specials - I used to work in that line but won't bore you with the details) the upshot being that on the Friday night at his company's Christmas party, it was still vague who was going on which ticket. I said goodbye to him on Monday like I usually did because he would stay over at his boss's house on Monday and Tuesday nights regularly. I was quite unbothered whether he flew on the Wednesday or the Thursday. Anyway, I think he and this bloke just picked up whichever ticket came to hand without any thought, for what difference does a day make? So on Friday morning when I heard the news I had absolutely no idea whether he had been on that plane or not - I was living in a housing co-op and didn't have a phone, I remember running down the street to the phone box and his boss's wife told me he had been seen in a bar in New York. He had taken the plane on the Wednesday then it had turned round, returned to Frankfurt, picked up the bomb, gone to Heathrow and collected the other bloke. When he did catch up with the news, he watched the telly in the bar in a daze then phoned his mum. It's not as if you ring the papers yourself and no one outside the two companies really knows this tale. The other bloke had just got engaged. I found it very hard to let my man out of my sight for a while. He had also recently just missed the Clapham train crash and had an accident with a stanley knife just missing an artery. We were all joking that his guardian angels must have been some 'heavy fellas' Well, you do joke about it at the time, if you have been lucky, because you are relieved.

As for your story, I imagine your hubby was a game keeper by the sound of it. What a lovely lifestyle that must have been and what happened so dreadfully cruel. Once more, my heart goes out to you.

FRED