HOMEOWNER HOTLINE
by Edna Lacey
It's always good to get back to Treasure Cay to receive a warm welcome from everyone at the airport and Jerry McDonald, our cab driver, waiting for us with his infectious grin.
This has been a relatively quiet autumn season along Treasure Cay Road East, Windward Beach Road and their tributaries. October saw a slower-than-usual ingress of winter residents returning from northern tundras and less rigorous climes to their south. Jerry and Judy Beck, John and Edna Lacey, Ron and Hilary Cole, Brian and Nadine Sheehe and Bill Bulger arrived early, as usual. The more permanent residents of the area, such as Bill Hertz, Bruce and Doreen Barth, Ron and Jackie Wilson, Jane Schor, Ed and Neida Laroda, Gerry and Cynthia Melzer, Sinclair Frederick and Barbara Farnam were all here when we arrived. Gerry and Rose Mary Roberts were absent until late October. Isik and Erica Erim arrived very late in the month to start construction on their new house at the end of Windward Beach Road. Welcome to the neighbourhood, Isik and Erica! Cynthia Vernall also returned later than usual from a summer spent in Canada and Europe.
For a wide variety of reasons, Nancy Darnell, Warren Steiner, Gerry and Helen Shelley, George and Carolyn Stern, Bill and Betty Richardson, Charlie and Peggy Morgan, Jean English, Pete and Molly Plumb and Bill and Clair Regan were among those who deferred their arrival until November. Bill was in and out but Clair didn't come in until late in the month. Frank Kay appeared for a few days and then he was gone. We welcome them all back to Paradise.
Millie Wood, Nelson and Patty Radwan and Roy and Audrey Baker have yet to arrive. Our spies tell us that the Bakers will be here for Christmas and that the Radwans will follow in mid-January. Nelson will be in for a few days in early December to tend to Sand Bank Yacht Club and other matters.
Hilary and Ron Cole were in England for several weeks this summer. Bruce and Doreen Barth visited Alan Caldwell in September and report that Alan is getting stronger every day. Keep up the good work, Alan. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all the time.
Jane Schor has left the island for a few weeks to have a foot operated on. Haste ye back, Jane. We miss you. Brian and Nadine painted their house in a beautiful new colour in September, an example recently followed by their neighbours, the Shelleys, and Cynthia Vernall. It's great to see the Brigantine Bay Road houses and their verges being so well tended.
Bill and Clair Regan are new grandparents, which explains Clair's late arrival. Show me the grandma who can resist being at her daughter's bedside for such a blessed event! I always love to cycle past the Regans' Garden of Eden.
Jean English looks relaxed, wonderful and well after a sad and busy summer looking after Phil's estate. Jean has set the memorial service for Phil for Sunday 25th January at the Treasure Cay Community Centre, so that Phil's many friends who had left Abaco before his death can attend.
Bill Hertz is looking good, as is Daisy. Judy Beck has spent most of the past two months with us, but it's hard to keep up with Jerry's coming and goings. I thought you told me that you are looking forward to spending less time at work, Jerry!
Marcellus Roberts graduated as a Royal Bahamas Police Force Reserve Officer with 35 other Abaconians on 7th November. We congratulate him on a wonderful achievement. A large contingent of his Treasure Cay friends - the Laceys, Coles, Floyds, Rodgers and the Alburys among them - attended the very impressive graduation ceremony in Marsh Harbour. Marcellus' grandmother and sister flew in from Nassau specially for the event.
The Laceys had a very busy and memorable summer. We escaped to Treasure Cay for three weeks on the water in late July and left soon after for three weeks in England. Our first three days there were spent in London recovering from jet lag, catching up on the London theatre scene and shopping.
Then we visited my sister Ruby, who lost her husband earlier this year, in the Lake District, one of England's most scenic and beautiful areas. On our first morning there, Ruby awakened us with a cup of tea to tell us the news of Princess Diana's death. Our spirits were dampened for the next week.
We went to the West Riding of Yorkshire to visit the resting place of my brother Jack, who died a year ago, and then returned by train to Kent where we stayed at a Fourteenth Century coaching inn in the tiny village of Wrotham, which we used as the base to visit our families in the London area.
The inn lay on the London-Canterbury pilgrim routs and served, during World War II, as the local pub for the Battle of Britain fighter pilots in those critical days in 1940 and 1941 when the British Commonwealth stood alone in the face of Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. The inn was filled with very interesting memorabilia of both eras.
We were there for Diana's funeral. Every shop in the village was closed so that all could watch the funeral and mourn Diana's passing. Even in this small village of only a few hundred people, its war memorial was a riot of colour from the hundreds of floral tributes placed there by its inhabitants. The aroma was magnificent.
John and I spent a lot of time with both our families before we headed back to beautiful Minnesota. It was good to be home and sleep in our own bed after occupying so many others.
We were home only a few days when our daughter Erika called from Singapore to tell us about the deliberately-set Indonesian forest fires that were casting a smoky pall over Singapore. Its intensity was four times the emergency maximum for Los Angeles County and was causing many breathing problems for her and her family. So, back they came to Minnesota to stay with us for a week before we left for Treasure Cay.
Now autumn is waning and, already, many are leaving to share the Holiday Season with family and other loved ones before they hasten back here for the rest of the winter.
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