I've Been Back Home Part 2

I went back home for 2 days, and Sunday was the 2nd day. The day started off OK, with me waking up early in the hotel room, and the plan was to go to Bushbury Crematorium to put the first bunch of flowers on my Grandmothers' grave.

It was the first visit to Bushbury for me for almost 26 years or so. The Crem was ever so vaguely familiar and I soon found my bearings again. The problem was though that I couldn't find my Grandmother's grave.

I walked around for hours, up and down the rows, trying to find her grave, but just couldn't see it anywhere. I know Bushbury lay out it's residents differently - Catholics in one part, C of E in another, Polish in yet another and so on but I walked around what must have been half the massive cemetery but just couldn't find her.

Main admin office at Bushbury Cemetery, including the Memorial Room

The Book of Remembrance, held in the Memorial Room

I remember this part of the cemetery from childhood.
There used to be a fish pond here with a bridge over it

I'll definitely try again next time I'm up there. Hoping to go back again in March, or thereabouts, but on a weekday, when the office will be open. Just sorry I couldn't find her grave.

Time had ran away from me at Bushbury. I just happened to glance at my watch and saw it was 11.30am - I had to meet my special friend G. at 12. I met her in the end at 12.10, after having got lost on the Birmingham New Road!

I picked G. up and we drove to Cannock Chase, through James Bridge so I could put the flowers on my parent's grave. Must say, doing so made me feel a little better, I've taken a note on their plot number and I'm aiming on getting the gravestone cleaned up and resited with my mum listed on the stone under Dad's name.

So, having left James Bridge, we drove through Willenhall, where I called into Tesco's to top up my mobile phone and discovered the Neptune Inn was not an inn anymore! Then, onto Cannock, watching out for a decent pub serving dinners on the way. We didn't find any, so we settled for a place in Cannock town centre, the name of which escapes me - the Longford I think. We broke the rules here - we didn't settle for Sunday dinner - we opted for the ("Usually unavailable on a Sunday") Fish & Chips!

Dinner at Cannock - Is this the Longford?

Then, after eating, we headed to the centre of Cannock Chase, where we visited a World War 1 training camp museum and had a walk, and a photoshoot, through part of the massive forest.

Then, from Cannock, we drove back to West Bromwich where the weekend, that special weekend, ended, I said goodbye to G, and left my Homeland - the West Midlands at 6.30pm, getting back home in Norfolk at 9.30pm.

And now, it's back to business, I have a future to plan and ensure I earn enough to pay for. I now have the start of a new future, and whether I end my life back in the West Midlands where I started out back in 1964 remains to be seen.

Let's get my life sorted out first, shall we? I don't know what the future holds in store, or where I'm going to go, let alone end up. This blog - and the book -  will record will record my journey, every step of the way.

Exciting, isn't it?