As Ray and I came into the walled garden at West Dean, I noticed a gentleman sitting to the right of the path on a wooden seat in front of a bed of bright red dahlias. My first thought was to wonder how I would get a shot of the dahlias without annoying him. My second was that his jumper matched the colour of the dahlias beautifully.
I drew level on my scooter and said hello. He answering, looked at the scooter and said that he had been thinking about getting one himself. I had noticed he had a walking stick propped up against the seat. I explained that, due to osteoarthritis, I have become restricted to walking about 150m. Therefore the mobility scooter is, for me, a wonderful form of locomotion. (I'd rather walk of course but it's necessary to be realistic.)
After a bit, my third thought came to me and I asked if he would let me take his photo and outlined my strangers' portraiture project. He seemed a little surprised but was happy to agree. We introduced ourselves: meet John.
I took a few photos and then saw a lady coming down the path towards us: John's wife, Carol.
John told us he is now 85 and long retired from his career as a project manager for the MOD. He remembered, at the start of his working life, taking up an apprenticeship with BEA at Southsea.
Astronomy is a particular hobby and he is a member of the British Astronomical Society. At home, they have a garden of about 1/2 an acre for which Carol is responsible.
Feeling she needed a project for the duration of lockdown, Carol has been collecting and archiving photos of several generations of their family. She was also interested, on John's behalf, in my scooter and spoke briefly about his mobility problems, operations etc.
I offered to take and send a couple of photos of the two of them, along with those of John. This completed, Carol wrote their email address and gave it to Ray.
This was a really pleasant encounter and, although I enjoy speaking with all the strangers I meet, there is a special something attaching to meetings with older folk, who are happy to unreservedly speak about themselves and genuinely happy that you have taken time to be with them.
And a special p.s. of course for my significant other half, Ray, without whom none of this would now be possible: 'sine qua non'.
https://flic.kr/p/2jMxp4b
