Mai Griffin
that, as an RAF officer, he’d seldom served abroad but
they had enjoyed the tropical sunshine several times,
when visiting Rowena’s parents in exotic places. He,
especially, appeared to be looking forward to retirement
in the south of France because he loved walking and
swimming and had already joined a local Gym.
They had a property in the UK, but it was tenanted
on a long lease, so they had planned to stay with
Rowena’s mother, now widowed, while seeking a
suitable property to buy, nearer to Languedoc. When the
time came, they moved from Scotland to their temporary
home in France and Brian encouraged Rowena to start
her own company, fulfilling a long-held dream.
He had planned to accept consultancy work, so he
could work from his computer at home if he felt like it,
but thought his pension would be enough to support
them both. With hindsight, after Brian came back from
his end of service resettlement course, it was easy to see
why Brian had suddenly became restless and said he
needed to work in the UK.
Although he had a highly-paid, attractive position on
offer locally, he claimed that it didn’t appeal to him and
Rowena was staggered when he suddenly accepted
work in England even though, by doing so, he had
deprived their younger son of his free university place.
Having a parent at a UK address had saddled him with
a huge student loan.
Brian, as usual, had put himself first. Worse, shortly
after he started work in the UK, he changed jobs for one
paying considerably less money, claiming that it was,
“more interesting and better located”.
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