1 September – Winding down

My cousin Robin asked for another get together before we leave to go home. I call him and offer to buy him a pint if he comes to the Chequers. He and Jean will join us at 8:00pm. After a late breakfast, we go to East Grinstead to check the train schedule for London Sunday. The trains go every hour. Johanne thought a walking tour of London might be nice but the available walking tours leave from various different tube stations, depending on the type of walk you want. Not sure we want to be running looking for tube stations in London on our last day here and it wasn’t obvious from the schedule what tours were available on a Sunday. Bus tours of London are another option. The earliest tour we could make leaves at 2:00pm but by the time we would get back to Forest Row, it would be late in the day. As we need to pack up Sunday night to be ready for an early departure Monday morning, we decide against the trip to London. Johanne noticed that today there’s a market fair in Forest Row. By now it’s late afternoon. Off we go for a walk. Just our luck. They’re closing up when we arrive. We decide to keep on walking around Forest Row for some much needed exercise. We get back to the Chequers, have a nice meal and before we knew it, Robin and Jean arrive. We share with them the details of our visit with Joan the day before. Robin showed Johanne a magazine (Your.FamilyTree) which included an article on searching for gravesites. He suggested looking for Charles T. Baker at the Forest Row Cemetery and failing that, to contact the Records Office in Chichester (West Sussex records office) since Haywards Heath where we think my grandfather is buried is on the East/West Sussex boundary. Oh great! Another 2 hour journey. The discussion carries on until Robin looks at his watch. It’s past 11pm and we suspect Claudio is anxious to close up. Robin produces his copies of “Mary and John, The Early Years” for me to sign. What an honour for me! This is the first time I’ve been asked to autograph my books. The evening with Robin and Jean was a really nice end to what had been a directionless day. We say our goodbyes and allow Claudio to lock up. Before we retire for the night, Johanne says, “So what are we going to do tomorrow?”.