Lighthouse

In 'A Little Present', I feel I was slightly misleading about the character of the vicar. The story about the collection envelopes was perfectly true, and as I said, it was no surprise to me. I also remember when my father was spending his final days in hospital two years ago, the same vicar spent many hours taking my mother to and from the hospital, and made sure that if he could not take her, there were others that would.

The vicar was a patient in the same ward only a few month earlier, so he knew all the nursing staff. He made sure that my mother had access to my father, even though the ward was officially closed because of a Norwalk virus outbreak, and others were not allowed visitors.

I didn't think any the worse of him for the 'little present' and I think my mother summed it up when I said that the vicar was probably missing her. She said "I doubt it.........but I bet he's missing my envelopes!"