Friends (2)

Barbara's a close friend from the US, we've known each other for some 40+ years.  She and her husband David have spent intervals in Sheffield and elsewhere in Europe, doing research about information technology.  They were both very supportive to me when I was doing my PhD, in an area related to their own interests.  We've kept in touch through occasional meetings and a great deal of email and phone contact. David died several years ago, and since then Barbara and I have made a more deliberate effort to timetable regular Facetime conversations.
Anyway... Barbara was in London this weekend, for the first time in many years, for a brief visit.  So I went down for the day.  We were lucky: the sun shone, the trains were fine and we had a relaxed time together. We spent part of the day in the National Portrait Gallery, and then got the bus to Islington, where she's staying with two old friends (they'll all be setting off by train to Portugal on Monday, for a holiday).  We sat out in their garden, and then made a quick early dinner together before I caught the evening train home.
I hope we'll manage another meeting in person in the next year or two. B is in the process of selling the house she and David shared, and moving closer to her oldest son and his family. I know she's not finding this process easy, physically or emotionally.  With luck, once that's sorted out, we might manage to get together again.