Page 328 - Demo

324nearby, and I got invited to these events. As the only man I was put in charge of the wine. None of these ladies spoke any English and so it was hard work for me. However, as the wine flowed, my understanding steadily improved. On one occasion we got to talking about the war. La Villatte was close to the unoccupied zone during the war. Children wereallowed to go to and frow relatively easily and so would bring food back from relatives from time to time. One of the ladies explained that she had lived in Paris at that time. Her parents were very anti-Nazi and one night she, her sister and parents went down the street and painted the cross of Lorraine on all the doors. This was the symbol of the Free French. The other ladies were horrified on hearing this as if they had been caught, they would all have been shot. Mamie was always at the lunches and on one occasion Patricia came too. As we were both somewhat younger than the rest, we did end up giggling to each other in a mixture of French and English. At the end of the lunches all the ladies went home but I would stay with Louise for a bit for a liquor of some kind. She put a sugar lump in hers and then sucked it. I took mine neat. We got on well despite the language differences. I respected her privacy and although I had legal access to her well, I did not use it while she was there. As time went on however, she started to suffer from Alzheimer%u2019s and did not always know who I was. On her last visit a nurse came and saw her every day which I thought was quite something but eventually it became obvious she could not manage, and her daughter put her in a home. The family sold the house to a man who was really unpleasant but that came later. In the early days when she was in residence, she took to Harry and put out some cake for him midmorning which he found before coming back in for a rest. He would stay with her for a bit before jumping over her wall into the lane. I had to leave the gate open when I realised he was out so that he could get back to me.