© amy Reese
I was amazed they still lived there. It was over 20 years ago… They’d severed contact when my marriage broke-down. They’d just moved, living in the paddock in a bus.
On arrival, we found no house, just a cement slab. Perhaps we had the address wrong but looking over the edge I saw the bus below. “Perhaps Cheryl died. She had leukaemia and he was too heartbroken to finish it.” I whispered to Trevor.
I knocked on the neighbour’s door and he allayed my fears.
“Nothings changed” he said. “They had so many kids, they had no time for building.”
Firstly my apologies for not getting to everyone last week. We have house-guests that are staying 2 months and my time which was already limited is more so. I will try to get to everyone this week but my apologies if I don’t.
n response to the photo prompt kindly provided by Amy Reese and the hosting by Rochelle who invites us to write a flash of no more than 100 words and link up via the blue frog on her site. If you don’t want to write have a read as there is always a varied talented selection to read.
About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Dear Irene,
So now I picture a huge family crammed into a bus. But it does sound like mum and dad have had no problem keeping warm. 😉 Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Rochelle you have made me laugh. Thanks
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Very visual! And I liked the picture, too.
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Thanks Noelle. Yes it is a great picture. It could send you anywhere.
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I think a Swedish idiom will fit here:
Finns det hjärterum så finns det stjärterum – If there’s room in the heart there’s room for the arse. “Nothing can make a guest feel more welcome than talking about their arse, and Swedish proverbs certainly do give a quick aside to a behind (see above). When Swedes are accommodating for extra guests, they’ll often use this beautifully rhyming proverb to welcome them. And their arse.”
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Love that Swedish idiom. Plan on learning it off by heart so I can use it the next time my Swedish friends come to visit. 🙂
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Me too! Thanks Björn!
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Kids always take priority. Nicely done Irene.
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Thanks Louise. I think making them was more fun than building.
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There was an old woman who lived in a bus
With her poor old man who needed a truss
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Haha. He probably should have had more than a truss.
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People have different priorities, as long as they’re happy… Good story.
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Thanks. Yes priorities are different for different people at different times.
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I can’t join in writing for this, but have enjoyed the read! Thanks for the story. Makes you want more…
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Glad you enjoyed the story Diane. You do join in — as a reader. What is a story if no-one reads it. 🙂
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Haha! 😀 Remind me of the old woman in the shoe rhyme. Well done because I was hit in the funny bone with that last line. Was expecting something dark…
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Ugh. “Reminds me” not “Remind me”.
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Yes I can see that now you have pointed it out.
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There’s a bit of nursery rhyme to this like the old woman in a shoe. The imagery, at least, reminds me of it. Sometimes life does get in the way, though.
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Yes I hadn’t thought of the old woman in the shoe when I wrote it but I can certainly see why that rhyme comes to mind. Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
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Glad to see family life thriving, makes me happy this 🙂
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Certainly thriving here Sherri. Glad it made you happy. 🙂
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The fortunate don’t notice the poverty of things for the wealth of family and friends.
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You are so right Sharon. If you have family and friends it doesn’t matter what else you have as you already have everything that is important.
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Yep… priorities! What works for one doesn’t always work for others…I’m with the fitting ’em all in!!
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Yes you are a girl after my own heart. At least fit in everything you enjoy doing and fit the other things around that.
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Absolutely!
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I, too, see a rather large family squashed into a bus, playing cards, laughing and tickling one another with an occasional brawl or two.
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A typical family then…. LOL
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Very good. I love the pictures you build of a big, happy, rollicking family. We do get ourselves overly concerned with the wrong things sometimes.
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Yes, sometimes we don’t see that wood for the trees. Love the idea of a rollicking family. 🙂
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What an interesting way to live.
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There would certainly be family togetherness
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A good and interesting story, Irene. I guess a bus could be made into a home if you removed some of the seats. I never thought about it. Perhaps some of their many kids could provide for the parents later. We had cellar homes in the U.S. where people would build the cellar and live there until they built the rest of the house. I haven’t seen one for years. I guess love matters most. Well done. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Yes love is certainly the most important factor in a family
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