MOTHER'S HOMECOMING

On Monday morning, under leaden skies and with the beginning of a slow thaw in the air, I took a taxi out to the Whiteness shop, where I bought a few essential groceries and began the trudge up the Brugarth access road, which was best described, under prevailing conditions, as a mini-alp. The snow, only ankle deep at the base of the slope, was more than a foot deep at the steepest part of the climb, and I struggled to "bux" through it. The prospects of getting it sufficiently clear to allow a mini-bus, containing my mother in a wheelchair, to ascend, looked very remote indeed. Just after I arrived, my nephew and his wife got stuck less than halfway up in their landrover. They dug the vehicle out, and set off back to recruit a labour force from other family members (all schools in Shetland were closed that day, so pupils and teachers were available!). I began the task of snow clearance with a garden spade and, after an hour and a half, and about three yards of road cleared, my back and legs declared their non-compliance with any further such activity.

I limped back into the house, and was sitting there, with my mind in a very dark and pessimistic place, when my sister Thelma and brother-in-law Magnie arrived, closely followed by a son, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and three grandchildren. From this point, the snow never stood a chance, and, within an hour, the road was cleared, salted, and ready to admit the ascent of any vehicle which ventured on to it. It was a happier me who sat with the squad in mother's kitchen, enjoying tea and soft drinks afterwards. Mother arrived on schedule at 4.30pm, her arm much the better of treatment and rest at the Fernlea Care Centre in Whalsay. She had enjoyed her week at the centre, and the staff there had been apparently unanimous in their invitation to return again soon!

I returned home that evening in a much more contented frame of mind than that in which I had left that morning. The weather forecast was for more drifting snowfall that evening and the next day, and I was not in the least concerned about it. It could snow all it liked - mother was home, and safe.