Restless Echoes
3. Things Heard and Seen
Although Clarinda had married and had made a new
home with Del, she still owned the house where Sarah
and Polly lived. When Sarah’s husband died (and she’d
sold the family home in Berkshire) Sarah would have
been happy to buy an apartment of her own. Instead,
Sarah and Polly moved to Oxfordshire to help Clarinda,
still struggling to come to terms over the recent loss of
her first husband. Now, years later and remarried, it had
been time for Clarinda to move on.
Over the years, Sarah had become so accustomed to
everyone else calling her Clarrie that sometimes she did
too. Sarah’s sisters, Clare and Linda, whose names had
been combined, had both now died ...so it hardly seemed
to matter, if it ever had, which of their names was the
more prominent.
Without question, Polly stayed with Sarah. Much of
their past was shared and they had so many memories
in common that they were comfortable living together.
When Clarrie married Del and left them, to be with him
nearer to Oxford where he was based, Sarah and Polly
would have been happy to move on, but Clarrie
persuaded them to continue living in her house.
It held so many happy memories for her but, more
importantly and, she admitted, totally selfishly, she and
12