When Simon and Harriet came to the island with their three young boys in the late 70s, they thought they had died and gone to heaven. The ferry called twice a day and the passengers were mainly islanders coming and going. The isolation was just perfect for Simon’s writing and Harriet, being a qualified horticulturalist, was in her element earning a meagre income from gardens all over the island.
Winding the clock forward thirty years, there is a different story to tell. The boys have long gone and are scattered around the globe. Privately, they each think of their upbringing as self-indulgent, but would never broach this with their parents.
The biggest impact is on Simon and Harriet themselves. As all motorised transport was banned and replaced by wheel-barrows, the daily task of living is now daunting and debilitating. Simon’s stroke brought them face to face with a bitter reality.
2 comments:
And interesting observation on life choices - especially how./where we choose to live. It's only on the downward side of it all you see the impacts.
Wow. Not the ending I had envisioned when I started reading! Very interesting turn of life events.
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