A Braw Day!

I didn’t get going till 9:30 today as I had to research my transport first. I had to come back to the flat twice, I forgot my iPad and the second return was for my umbrella as I hadn’t noticed it was raining till I got outside. I had meticulously planned my route and the #’s of busses I could take and again I got down the street to the Haymarket station and everything I researched was wrong! Wrong bus #, wrong bus company, wrong £fare, and wrong schedule. Across the track I see a bus company office so in I go, everyone is very helpful.....left the bus office and my umbrella on their counter, I’m back waiting for the bus when I realize the rain is on again, back I go, the fellow from the bus office is running toward me waving my brolly! I run to meet him and race back as another bus is coming. It seems like it may be one I want but I ask this time if it is going to Winchburgh as I’ve discovered none go to Broxburn (Billy did tell me this) Finally I’m on my way now recalculating as I’m due to be at the  Gyle Park by 12:30. To meet cousin Sandra.
I get to Winchburgh and get of the bus in front of my old school, which is looking derelict, boarded up and labelled a dangerous space! I snap a few pictures and walk towards Haigs Bakery where my school friend Jane and sister Myra Haig lived above the bakery. I remember going to play with Jane  after school, sliding down the banister from upstairs, landing in a puff of flour, to get a treat behind the counter. Jane wasn’t a well child, I didn’t know exactly why, but she missed a lot of school. Shortly after we immigrated to Canada she passed away from kidney disease, — the days before dialysis. My cousin Known as baker Andrew was a baker there and had a young Billy Glendinning  as his apprentice (years later Billy married my sister, and still bakes sausage rolls and the best shortbread!)
Further on I recall the drapery shop, the chemist, all the shops are different now, the  fields of cows right behind the high street are gone , their fields now a housing development. The last remaining familiar place, The Tally Ho Hotel , where my aunties and my Granny used to play cards once a week, bingo and no doubt a drink and a dance or two. I turn at the corner and walk down Niddry Road towards my Granny’s Council house. More pictures, the rows are in terrible shape., it was much nicer when she lived there. The Catholic Church over the high brick wall is under extensive repair. I remember when a wedding was on there our curtains would be drawn so we could peek at the proceedings. Heaven help that we should watch anything catholic! That’s the way it was.

I continue to walk down the road and ask a girl walking toward me if she knows when the Broxburn bus is due? She says, should be one any minute after consulting her watch! Things could be looking up for my schedule I thought .....many minutes later I realize I can’t wait . I cross the canal bridge to Bells Mill Terrace, where we lived at #29. I took a couple of photos, very bad repair. I cross the next canal bridge and there is a sign pointing to the cemetery, in I go to find my granny’s grave. My mums mum and dad and an unborn child are buried here together. It’s a beautiful well kept cemetery surrounded by a stone wall, Green cared for grass ,well tended and many elaborate headstones. I’m looking for two small plaques with simple inscriptions, that is what I remembered from a long ago visit. I walked around without success, as I was nearly ready to leave I saw my auntie Chris and Uncle Bills headstone.....obviously visited on a regular basis. I was pleased I had spotted it. Then just as I was about to go out the gate something made me turn for one last look over the whole garden.....an old upright headstone, well weathered had my granny’s name, Agnes Long! And issac, and son! Not what I remembered , then I realized my mother must have put it there after granny died in September 1975. She had just been to Canada 3 weeks previously to meet her newest great grandchild, Travis who was born in January that year. Now I really don’t have time to walk up Niddry Brae to Broxburn today, so I quickly go back to the high street for the bus to  Gyle. Luck iscwith mecas the wait is short. I arrive at my destination with time to get a coffee and wait for Sandra. We meet like it was last Week! We head to Queensferry for lunch in her wee car. We sit and talk over lunch for  about  3 hours....a lot of years to catch up on. Then we go to her house in Kirkliston, look at each other’s photos...mostly old ones. She had photos of our grandparents on our dads side, I had never met them or even seen photos. Soon it was time to pick her grandson Monty up from school. She is raising him, he is a delightful engaging 10 year old. Home again for more visiting then we took Monty out for Mac Donald’s, after that it was close to 8 and she dropped me at the bus for my trip back to Edinburgh. What a good day! Exactly how I thought it would be!
Tomorrow will be another good day!