Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    AU34/21/7/16/29
  • Title
    Letter from R P S Waddy
  • Date free text
    17 December 1984
  • Production date
    From: 1984 To: 1984
  • Scope and Content
    A typewritten letter from R P S Waddy (former Rector of St Andrew's, Ampthill) to Honora Grimmer, on headed paper from Maiden Newton, Dorchester, Dorset: "My dear Nora, I hope there is just time to send you our affection and 'very best wishes' (as my successor-but-one at Ditchingham describes his: I haven't got a second-rate sort for lesser breeds without the Law) for 1985. I have adopted my 'word' for the New Year from the bedroom of Ananias of Damascus, when he was endeavouring, quite reasonably, to question the wisdom of putting his head into the lion's den of Straight Street, and was told to PUSH OFF. I was delighted to discover that it is the verb used for punts on sandbanks; and how good to be on such good terms with the Lord that He can address us in the imperative! So, PUSH ON - and watch the sandbanks fade. Margaret and I are both rather more than a year older that we were a year ago - which is what you said of yourselves a year ago. 1984 has been a Golden Year for us, with 80th birthdays and our Golden Wedding; and 1985 may well be a hangover, although one never knows what Providence has up His capricious sleeve. But I have had the best of all Christmas presents (and what we aks for is so much more important than what we think we can give - I have passed my medical test and been allowed to drive the car for another year anyway. So we can continue to sally off to Vanity Fair - a rum way to describe Dorchester! - and I can continue to celebrate and preach in partibus porcorum, which means Toller of that ilk and Hooke, with occasional trips further in the summer. I haven't driven over the borders of Dorset this year, and don't want to. Meanwhile Margaret does look very frail sometimes, but she continues to do all that she want to do, to be cheerful about all that she can't do any more and to know the difference, which is the true wisdom. We are off to Kent and Christopher for Christmas - but that only means crossing the platform at Waterloo - where our three Waddy grandchildren will teach us new games, beat us soundly, and let us creep back happily to our own warm cottage and our electric blankets. Havana Marking, our eldest, now 12, is taking her parents off to Kashmir just for the ride - they love travelling - she is as sweet as ever and hoping to go on to Bryanston next Autumn, but still troubled by dyslexia which is a brute. Her father Giles won an award for designing the best shopping centre in Europe this year (tied with something in Madrid) and is very busy naturally; Stacy is planning a new series for TV next year; and Christopher is busily engaged in the City too, which is satisfactory. So we are well looked after. We have acquired a new neighbour, who was a Merchant Navy cook throughout the last war, was torpedoed four times and then decided that it was time he learnt to swim. We have all known people like that! But PUSH ON - and all our love. Yours affectionately, Pat Stacy Waddy
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