A story by Mark Jordan

It was mid-March last year when I received a call from Brenda. We had passed and talked to each other along our road for a number of years as Brenda lived at the posh end and we lived at the other. "Can you come and have a look at my fence post please. The recent strong winds in February have made it a bit wobbly. Sure Brenda, I'll come and have a look, I'm sure a couple of screws and a brace will sort everything out."

Brenda was my Godmother and having had a father as a Cub Scout leader and me gone through the ranks of Scouting this was truly to be a case of living up to the motto 'to help other people and to do a good turn every day'. As it turns out, the fence had been erected many years ago by Ruebin, Brenda's husband, who was a very good engineer and carpenter and now the fence post was rotten to the point of a sharpened pencil standing on point with only the entwined rose bush on the picket fencing keeping everything upright. As I looked down the garden I could see the other posts were of a similar condition. What had I let myself in for?

Now if a job needs doing, do it right, with the right tools. A couple of screws and a brace were definitely not going to do the job. Each day over the next 6-8 weeks Brenda would provide tea or coffee circa 11am and we would share stories of recent news and recall the glory days of the different amateur drama shows we had been involved in. Finally, 16 rotten wooden fence posts (spaced 6ft apart) were dug out and replaced with 16 new posts and 16 new holes (1.8m apart) dug in.

As the last hole was being dug she put on her best performance voice and said naively, "Don't you think the shed is looking old as well?". How could I refuse? What could I do? It was soon after I met David and together over the long summer we built a concrete foundation and new shed for Brenda. We found the bubble car, yet never did find the Messerschmitt 109, but that's another story.

I will always look back and remember when we stopped for tea breaks the stories Brenda told of her days in the Theatre and the funny things that happened.