The surprise farewell party which the Boston ward put on for us was only the beginning of our farewell tour.  Actually, it could be argued that it was right in the middle of the tour.  Our farewell tour really started around April, as that was when Tim and I were joined by his old Judd friends as we attended a big Navy/RAF ball on board a very old and impressive ship (can't remember the name!).

     And after that event, we started touring the country in earnest, seeing Neil and Jessica up north, and lots of Bleakleys and others down south, then seeing Helen and Scott and the Stiles.  Here is another good-bye, that took place in the second week of July.  Verity had to say goodbye to her lovely pre-school teachers at St. Hugh's.  After a year of attending a rather the crowded, inflexible, but very local Jacdor pre-school, I had to look for an alternative pre-school because Jacdor couldn't give me the schedule I needed to work on my academic article.  I called the pre-school associated with the lovely, but private and so very expensive St. Hugh's school.  It turned out that Verity was entitled to 10 free pre-school hours a week, even at a private school, and they could accommodate my schedule.  Thus commenced a blissful couple of months - for both Verity and me - where Verity was able to be in a small, quiet, relaxed, and happy setting for pre-school.  So, we were sad to leave that pre-school.  Here she is with her teachers on her last day: 

 

     And a week before school let out, both Eleanor and Samuel received the 'Superstar of the Week' award.



    
Here they are with the other 'Superstars of the Week'.  Now, every week one child is picked from among the 'Superstars of the Week' to be, well, I guess the 'Super-superstar of the week.'  For the first time in three years, one of my children was awarded the 'Super-superstar of the week, and it was Eleanor!  Here she is with her special 'star' trophy.

     Then, it was time for Tim's big surprise.  I had planned not one, but two surprise parties for Tim for the second weekend in July.  I had no idea how I was going to pull it off, because I had to get a very stressed out and busy husband to leave his house for two days, when he knew full well that he was supposed to be getting things ready to move.  I had to devise a plan to get him away from the house.  Anyway, I wrote him a 'James Bond' type letter, which sadly I don't think I saved on my computer.  I gave him breakfast in bed around 8am, with the letter on the tray.  He was told that he was going on a top secret mission and he would not know any of the details until later on.  He was to be dressed and ready to leave his house in his top secret mission vehicle by 10am, and he would not return home until late Sunday night.  Fortunately, Tim didn't argue and he seemed to understand that even though he had probably lots planned for that day, I was serious about going away for the weekend.  Yes, I think I said something in the letter about how the happiness of many people was dependent upon him following the instructions given to him.
     So, we were going to Alice and Paul Hearne's house first - yeaa!  It was a huge buffet, and Alice very kindly said I didn't have to bring anything.  But insisted on bringing my Raspberry and Lavender trifle.  It had to be perfect.  I remember trying very hard to make it perfect.  Here is the first layer - the lavender sponge cake, made up into sandwiches with raspberry and lavender jam, and then soaked in raspberry liquid, then topped with some just cooked, and some fresh, raspberries: 

     I didn't tell Tim where we were going.  I just told him to go south, and get on the A1.  Eventually he figured out where we were going.  We arrived on a beautiful, sunny, hot July afternoon at Alice and Paul's lovely home, and lots of people were waiting to greet us to bid us a fond farewell.

     

    








     There were Jo and Tom Barron, and Adam and Hannah Hurley, who had travelled especially from Swindon.  And there were Nina and Tony Langston, along with their boys Paul and Nick and their families.  And there were our good RAF LDS friends, Steve and Babs Loveridge.

     But the real surprise was when James Overthrow walked into the garden.  I had invited lots of Tim's RAF collegues from all his different tours, but most of them were unable to come due to the fact that they all live far away from High Wycombe, although there were all of them very sorry to miss Tim's party.  James, however, made the trip from Bristol.  Tim worked with James when we were at High Wycombe from 2003-2005, so it was a nice reunion.

 







 

     Thankfully, the trifle made it unscathed, and everyone was polite enough to rave about it .....

    

     .

     .... most especially, of course, our dear friend Rosemary Harding, whose speciality is giving people compliments and making people feel good about themselves!  She kept saying 'Isn't this gorgeous', and 'Holly's our Nigella', etc. etc.

 

     So while the children played in the garden, having water fights and etc ....

     We spent the rest of the day chatting, eating, singing, and prolonging our goodbyes.  Rosemary had just been to a 'Peace in the Park' event in Oxford and so she talked a lot about the importance of meditating.


 
 

















    Alice and Paul let us stay at their house for the night, and the next day we attending the High Wycombe ward for the last time for a long while.  After church we said goodbye to some of the best people on the planet - Alice, Paul, Rosemary and Nigel, and their families.
 

     Then, it was on to the second party. Again, Tim had no knowledge of this.  He thought we were going to Lynn Watford's house to dinner, because she had invited us a few weeks before.  And we were going to Lynn's house for dinner.  He just didn't know that after dinner there would be many people descending on Lynn's house to say goodbye to us.
     When people started arriving, he was surprised, but he was getting used to being surprised by now, I think.  But he wasn't expecting this:



    

     Bernie Dines walked into the garden, and Tim was truly amazed and happy to see his old friend.  Tim had worked with Bernie at High Wycombe.









     And if that wasn't enough, then Tim's old Group Captain, Gerard Bland and his wife walked into the garden.  I remember Tim saying something like 'I have no idea what's going to happen next.'







     The rest of the guests were the more usual suspects, who came and talked and laughed and ate, etc.  Here's Liz Knight with her boys, and James Kitsell - all gathered around Abigail, as usual!

     Our dear friend and once-awesome home teacher, Arnie Kitsell came:

     Imogen got to say goodbye to some old Brampton friends, including the ever-faithful Katherine Margaret Charmin.

     It was fun to see Richard and Emma Malachowski,

     As well as Emma and Matthew Wade,

     Charlotte and Alex Parker helped to host the event:

     Our dear long, long-time friends, the Knights,

     And our second family, the Dysons, managed to make a surprise appearance as well!

     Here we are with our gracious hosts, Lynn and Bethany and Robert Watford.

     It was a lot of work planning the parties, and I don't know if I could do it again, but the thing about these kinds of special social events is that, in my experience, they are 100% worth it.  They are important, unforgettable, and in this case, they helped us all - including the kids - to prepare emotionally to say goodbye to this lovely land.
 

 

            The day after we got back from Rome, we went down to Scott and Helen Cryer's house for a farewell get together.  Helen invited Caden and Rebecca Stiles as well, since they also were leaving the UK this summer to go back to Canada.  All three of our families are good friends with one another, so we had a fantastic time hanging out, eating and talking.  We talked about everything from our kids to work to politics to our travels to the gospel. 

     It was really hard to say goodbye to Helen and Scott.  We met them in 2005 when we moved to Brampton.  Scott was bishop at the time.  I didn't immediately take a strong liking to him, probably because he is pretty reserved and quiet, so he is a little bit hard to get to know.  But as I got to know him, I became convinced that he and Helen were two of the most special people I had ever met.  Tim and I became such good friends with them that we would joke that Tim was Scott's only friend, because Helen would always claim that Scott didn't have any friends! 

     Our kids were similar ages, and so over the five years we were in Brampton we started to have more and more social engagements with the Cryers.  During half term I would bring my kids over to her house, or she would come to my house.  One time they came over and we did Halloween-type stuff, another time they came over and we did Easter activities together - I think that year we made lamps out of Sculpy and a model of the Garden of Gesthemene.  We went over to Helen's one year and made Valentine cards with all her fabulous card making stuff.  She always had us over for her yearly bonfire night for Guy Fawkes, where we always had her yummy chili.

     Then, there were all the Sunday dinner engagements - she would have us over, or we would have them over.  And they became our birthday party regulars:  I usually try to do something to celebrate Tim's birthday, and mine as well, since it takes place in the same week.  I always invited the Cryers to our birthday celebrations, probably more regularly than I invited anyone else (except maybe Liz Knight)  And they always came.

     But the thing I love about Helen and Scott is that they are both so strong in the gospel.  I feel like I can trust them both completely, with anything.  So, it was really, really hard to say goodbye.  It didn't help that Abigail and Lucy were crying like the world was about to end! 

     Here I am with Helen:



 

     And here we are, the two couples:

     Then, after Rome and a sociable weekend, it was back to the daily grind.  The only difference was that now the daily grind included getting ready to move, which was really stressful.  To break up the stress, I tried to make life as normal as possible for the kids.  So, it was the first of July - of course I had to take the kids strawberry picking, and then come and make loads of jam, even though we would be leaving the country within the month.
     Eleanor took this picture as we were getting ready to make the jam.  Pretty artistic, isn't it?

    
     Here's Georgie, preparing the strawberries:

 

      Eleanor and Verity were a great help, too:

     Here is our beautiful jam.  Just strawberries, sugar and lemon juice.  It doesn't get any simpler, or better than that:

     I also made sure that I got around to making Elderflower panna cotta - or Elderflower custard - can't remember now which one I did!  But both are important, so it doesn't matter.  The point is that I got to soak elderflower in cream one last time before I left England, an opportunity not to be missed.

     A lot of time at this point was spent going from room to room and deciding what we were keeping, and what we would be leaving behind.  Here's a shelf unit - used by Tim's family when he was little - that has been with us from the time Abigail was a baby.  It didn't make the cut.         

     And here's Tim and Peter's old desk, which we have had for a very long time, which stayed behind as well.

     The next weekend we had the Boston ward's annual campout.  Fortunately, the weather was fantastic!  The cold, cold winter seemed to have given way to a long, beautiful summer.  For the first time in about 25 years, I tried my hand at cooking breakfast over an open fire.  I loved it!

     But this was not any old ward campout.  In the morning we had a big Relief Society activity - one of our main activities all year.  We had decided to do something on provident living.  An old subject, but one that the Boston Relief Society hadn't done in a while.  We wanted to cover several different aspects of provident living, but make it a little bit different at the same time.  We decided to cover first the more conventional topic of how to use wheat food storage, wonderfully presented by Elaine Elsdon, who had brought loads of different dishes using whole wheat, such as a peanut butter cookies, chocolate cake, and spaghetti sauce:

     Then, on to the rather non-conventional topic!  It was suggested, when we planned the activity in February, that a good 'last days' skill to have - when food would be considered scarce - would be to be able to skin a rabbit.  I might add that some of the people who were very enthusiastic about this idea back in February were also the ones who decided it was all too much for them and decided not to not attend when the activity actually took place! 
     So, Barry White, of course, was our guy.  He dutifully shot some rabbits for us, and brought them along so that he could give us a hands-on demonstration.  The kids were both fascinated and completely disgusted:

     It was supposed to be a Relief Society activity, but it was a family campout, so the kids were running around.  The lure of butchery was too much for them, and the Primary and the Youth soon started congregating around our activity, and then became full participants!  Abigail and Imogen some of the first to volunteer to try their hand at skinning.  The pictures speak for themselves, so there is no need for commentary!

     The last activity was a presentation on outdoor survival, done by Gav Smith.  We were taught how to start a fire, which the boys particularly enjoyed.

     Tim was in and out during the Relief Society activity, packing up the tent and getting everything ready to go.   True to form, he managed to find time to fly one of his airplanes.  And, true to form, he managed to get the airplane stuck in a tree.  For not the first time in his life, Tim became the center of attention of a non-airplane event by climbing up very high in a tree to recover his airplane.  This time no one seemed to mind, however (the first time it happened, which was at a violin recital in 2008, some people minded very much!).

     The Bishop had made an appointment to see me and Tim on the following Tuesday.  I just assumed it was to talk about something to do with being Relief Society President - or, worst case scenario, to talk about something bad one of our children had done.  Since both Tim and I had to go, that meant that we had to take all the kids with us.  At one point we considered not taking Eleanor, because I think she was feeling ill, which meant one of us would be staying home.  But about 30 minutes before we had to leave, Tim pulled me aside and said he thought that the ward might be planning something for us, so we all needed to be in attendance.  It hadn't even occurred to me, but he was right. 
     We drove up to the chapel, and the big girls said 'Wow, there are a lot of cars here for a Tuesday night.'  And we walked into the chapel, and it was very quiet for a Tuesday.  The Bishop greeted us, then took us into the cultural hall.  Everyone shouted 'SURPRISE!'  Then commenced a very thoughtful, very nice farewell party from the Boston ward.  Loads of people were in attendance, including lots of less actives.  I don't have a ton of pictures, but here are some.  Here are Kathy Henman, Pat Hounsell, and Joyce White:

     The lovely Rhi Lavender:

     And the very kind Ian Wilson:

 

     They took our family picture, with the brilliant farewell sign they made for us.  The kids had all made really good friends in that ward, and they were very sad to go. 

     As for me, being in the Boston ward was definitely an important part of my spiritual journey.  It was not the strongest of wards, and a lot of the time I found that an unwelcome challenge.  But I learned some incredible lessons serving in that ward.  I don't know if I can recount all of them here, but here are a few thoughts:  I learned that when those close to us are not living the gospel, love and endurance are the answers, not wallowing in disappointment; I learned that God takes us as we are, and asks us to follow and serve Him - he does not wait until we are perfect to call us into leadership positions; I learned that God looks past our sins and our imperfections, and loves us perfectly, and we need to try to do the same to those around us.  I learned that serving the church is an essential part of our spiritual growth, and we need to ask 'What can I do for the Church' rather than 'What can the Church do for me'. 

     Those three years in Lincolnshire were a very tough time.  But God answered our prayers in incredible ways while we were there - more powerfully than either Tim or I had experienced before.  We left with stronger, deeper, richer testimonies than when we arrived.  We could feel that God was with us every step of the way.

 



     Since our first two days in Rome were spent exploring the ancient, pagan Roman republic and empire, Tim thought it would be a good idea to spend our third day exploring Christian Rome.  We went first to the Christian catacombs, and then on to the Vatican City.
     The early Christian catacombs were not to be missed!  I loved the Colosseum and the Forum, but the catacombs were something really special to me.  You aren't allowed to take pictures in the catacombs themselves.  But we did get pictures of the gardens and churches which are above the catacombs.  The catacombs are a few miles outside of Rome, so we had to take a bus there.  And there are several catacombs, each with miles of underground tunnels, so the entrances to each are quite far apart from one another.  We decided to go to the catacomb of San Sebastian.  Here we are in the gardens near the entrance to San Sebastian:

     It was still mid-morning, so it wasn't too hot yet.  The gardens were very peaceful and tranquil.  Tim kept commenting on how peaceful it was.

    Just around the corner from this sign is the church which is built directly over the catacombs.  That's what the Christian church did very often:  built churches on top of important sights.  When we got down into the catacombs, we actually saw the remains of another church that had been the original church on top of the catacombs.  The church there now was built on top of that church!

     Just to the side of this church is the entrance to the catacombs.  You have to have a guided tour; you aren't allowed down there by yourself.  It was fascinating.  The early Christian church was a very simple church, and a very tight community.  The graves in which they buried their fellow Christians were simple spaces carved out of the earth.  There were no statues, no commissioned artwork, no expensive possessions buried with them.  There were simple carvings in the walls which symbolized Christian concepts:  a carving of the dove, which symbolized peace; a carving of the anchor, which symbolized hope; a carving of the fish, ICTHYS, which is an anagram for 'Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior' in Greek (the Greek words are Iesous Christos, Theou Yios, Soter), and the 'Chi-Rho' sign, a combination of the Greek letters X and P, which are the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek.  I really got the sense that these early Christians were very humble people who had put the world behind them and placed all their hope and faith in Jesus, and in the resurrection which He made possible.
     The San Sebastian catacombs are named after, of course, Saint Sebastian.  Saint Sebastian was an early Christian who rose to prominence in the Roman army.  The Roman emperor knew him and thought highly of him.  Eventually it came out that Sebastian was a Christian, and the Roman emperor turned against him.  He was put in front of a 'firing squad', so to speak, and was shot to death with arrows.  I can't remember the full story, but he was a man of great courage and faith who was not afraid to stand up for Christ.  They have a sort of shrine dedicated to Saint Sebastian in this catacomb.
     After we saw the catacombs underground, we went into the church.  There was a very interesting display there.  There are a pair of bronze shoes, beneath which is the inscription 'quo vadis?'  'Quo vadis' is Latin for 'where are you going?'  The story is that when Peter was about to be crucified, he tried to escape his fate by fleeing from Rome.  He was on the road which led outside the city to the catacombs, and there Jesus appeared to him.  When Peter saw Jesus, he asked Jesus where he was going, and Jesus answered that He was going to Rome to be crucified again.  Peter then realized what he had to do, and he turned back to Rome where he would face his fate.
     I don't know if that story is true, but it had quite an affect on me.  I love it, because Peter asks the Lord 'where are you going?'  And that's what we as Christians should be asking Jesus, because wherever Jesus is going, that's where we should be going, also.  Jesus might answer that He is going to help my teenage daughter by talking to her late into the night, or He might answer that He is going visiting teaching, or to the refugee center, etc.  I have to be the one to listen to where He is telling me to go.
     Here is a picture of the art work on the ceiling of that church:
 

     Then we headed back into Rome on the bus, to go to Vatican City.  By this time we had been on our feet for 15 hours a day, for two and a half days, sun burned twice over.  We were all exhausted, and just happy for a chance to sit down.  The girls fell asleep almost immediately:

     We got on our feet again and walked into Vatican City.  It is surrounded by huge Roman pillars, with marble statues of all the saints along the top.  But the impression you get is that of the Catholic church copying ancient Rome, with all it's temples and statues of pagan gods.

 

 

     Then we went into St. Peter's Basilica, a breathtakingly opulent building.  Tim wasn't a fan and thought it was too showy.  Clearly, the place is designed to impress.

     All along the top of the Basilica, there are written the words which Jesus spoke to Peter from various passages in the New Testament. Here is an excerpt from 'I say unto thee, Peter, that upon this rock I will build by church ....'

     St. Peter's boasts Michaelangelo's 'Pieta', the sculpture of Mary holding Jesus after He was taken down from the cross.  Michaelangelo sculpted this when he was 25.  I found it to be superbly beautiful, and very moving.

 

     Here are some other pictures from the Basilica.  They speak for themselves:



 

 

        Then we walked through the streets of Rome, back to our hotel and then on to the airport.  We were hot and tired, but it was a once in lifetime trip, which we all loved.