Martha and Paul
August 5th 2006
Naomi and Alex
October 7th, 2006
Esther and Dave
at Naomi's wedding
And this is all of us, at Naomi's wedding
L to R. Tom, Annie, Tony, Alison, Alex, Naomi, Paul, Martha, Dave, Esther
More pictures of Martha's wedding and Naomi's wedding
The Year of Two Weddings and an Engagement
... In which we start to adjust to living in an empty nest, where we roam around the huge house calling to each other, "Where are you?"
It's been an eventful and exciting year, and you can tell from the pictures, a happy one.
Martha was the first of the daughters to tie the knot. She and Paul got married on August 5th, with the reception in a splendid marquee in Paul's mum's garden in Yarnton. They're living in Upper Tooting - wherever that is, somewhere in the wild French-speaking lands south of the River Thames, I think - where Martha is still thoroughly enjoying teaching RE to teenagers, while Paul is a business analyst working in London.
Naomi and Alex were married on October 7th, and their reception was at the Hawkwell House Hotel in Iffley. They're living much nearer, in Headington. Naomi is still working as a biomedical scientist at the JR Hospital, while Alex works for the same company as Paul, so has to commute to London several days a week. They both work very hard: Naomi is studying for another Master’s - in hospital administration - while Alex is finishing his accountancy exams, and hoping to get accepted for a PhD in Economics or some such.
It was a great privilege to marry the two girls at St Nicholas. I was really pleased that they wanted me to; and I got to give them away as well, walking with them from the Vicarage to the church and down the aisle, before sidestepping round in front for the "Dearly beloved" bit.
So just Esther, our baby, left in the nest; is that what you think? Not so! She announced in July that she and Dave were engaged, and planning to get married possibly in 2008. This wasn’t entirely a surprise to us, as Dave had come to see me several weeks before to ask for my ‘permission’ to marry Esther. His plan was to pop the question while they were on a last romantic evening of their holiday together. This meant we had to keep the secret for all those weeks, desperately trying not to blurt it out every time Esther phoned. There was even the anxious moment as we began to wonder whether the answer had been ‘No’. (As if.) Because Dave is a medical student at Nottingham, he doesn’t get university vacations, so Esther has been staying up there after the end of term too. Suddenly, without planning it, she has pretty much left home as well.
Tom and Annie are still in East London and enjoying life there. Annie started a new job in London this autumn - still in research - but it does mean she doesn’t have to commute to Cambridge every day as she was doing.
Tony’s mum was very ill earlier in the year. After doing so well and managing on her own at the bungalow following Dad’s death in October 2005, she went down with pneumonia in March, and then picked up two more nasty bugs in hospital.
After a worrying couple of weeks she began to pull round, but she ended up spending three months in hospital, by which time she was too frail to be able to go home and look after herself in the bungalow, even with carers. We managed to find her a place at a care home in Tregaron, where after some initial complaints she has settled down very well. Sally is able to visit often, and takes Mum up to the farm for Sunday lunch every week. Sadly it's not such an easy drive from Oxford, or even from Church Stretton, but we try to get over to see her whenever we can.
We had a great short break in Paris over St Valentine's Day, with a group of staff and students from Oxford Brookes. This was only our second visit there together but it was nice to see the Seine again together, and we are still saving lots of the main sights "for the next time". After getting home Tony felt inspired to have another go at reading Proust, and finally finished it in April. For those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure, I won't spoil it by telling you what happens in the end. My other Big Reads of this year have been Bleak House, and Milton's Paradise Lost - one of those very rare works which I immediately went back to and re-read, and still feel it needs a few more goes at.
Alison got her long-awaited Principal Lecturership in the summer, so started a "new job" with extra responsibilities in September. She is still enjoying her Oxford Ministry Course, now well into the second year which is usually reckoned the worst: the first flush of enthusiasm has passed, and it still seems a long long time before you finish and get ordained.
Things seem to be going well at church. Alison and I decided back at the beginning of the year to give up alcohol for Lent - and we did it! It felt like a real sacrifice but also a deep spiritual experience in which we felt we grew closer to God. The congregation are in good heart, with several new young families with numbers of children (you can't beat 'biological' church growth!) and we are exploring ways of developing a new culture of outreach and intergenerational church. We are glad to be international too, with two German families as well as our two West Papuan families, who keep before our minds the plight of their people, in their struggle for freedom from the illegal occupation and aggression by Indonesia. Oxford has the HQ of the Free West Papua movement in this country.
For up-to-date news and views throughout the year, don't forget to visit the blog Storyteller's World and the rest of my website, Living To Tell The Tale, which it links to.
May God continue to bless you all during the coming year. And if any of you are free to visit Oxford ever: we now have a spare bedroom you are welcome to stay in!