As I walked back over the water meadows from the Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty, I stopped to take one last shot. Suddenly I seemed to feel a presence and came out from behind the viewfinder to see a chocolate labrador carrying on across the field.
He was followed by his owner and I laughingly commented he had startled me. Meet Dexter, 16 months old and his owner Nadina. She asked me about the almshouses saying she had never visited although living locally. I told her a bit about St Cross and she thought she might take her mother-in-law on a visit the following week.
Nadina was happy to be photographed for my project when I explained it. The midday sun was a bit of a challenge so I took a few shots in different locations.
Her husband is away during the week as he is a long-haul pilot for British Airways and on that particular day her son was at tennis camp. She walks Dexter twice a day, a total of 3 hours. She likes reading, yoga, and pilates and has also trained in reiki but does not practise this professionally.
The family used to live in France and there Nadina also worked for BA but they found life to be plagued by bureaucracy with difficulties in getting anything done as companies did not appear to want to work together. I commented that I have always had a little regret that France has been just for holidays for us. But it seems we have enjoyed the best of both worlds.
I gave Nadina a card to contact me for photos. Today I received an email from her. She wrote that she had followed the link on my card to 365 and discovered the reference to my publication of my dad's wartime/PoW diaries: 'Till We Meet Again: Gunner Bert Martin 1941 to 1945' and has ordered a copy from Amazon.
She writes, "I'm always looking out for new factual WW2 books for my dad who is fascinated to read about every aspect and he'll appreciate reading about your dad." It's very nice, of course, for me to know that. Although we have always appreciated that the diaries are a niche market, we have sold around 120 copies to date.
Thanks to Nadina for participating in my strangers' series - and for her patience with the midday sun.
Nadina’s dad will really your dad’s book Hazel, full of fascinating life in a prison camp during the war. What a pretty girl she is too! Sounds like you might see her again & perhaps meet mum!
