C Young

A few years ago we drove to Ireland where we'd rented a cottage in Connemara, and decided to break the journey and by accident came across a country house hotel, where we were greeted by an elderly Scottish lady (the mother of one of the owners) and we stayed the night. On our return, we decided to stop again before getting the ferry, and returned to the same place. This time, however, the owners were there, and after dinner we got into a conversation with them. The wife was Scottish, and came from Moffatt. I said - I have a friend from Moffat, who I met when I lived in Edinburgh. He was a good friend of my first husband, who had died 20 years before. I told her his name and she said 'that's my brother'. Then she looked at me and said : My god, you're the Canadian wife. I then realised I had heard about her and my friend's mother (the elderly Scottish lady who had been there our first visit) but of course we had never met. She immediately phoned her brother in Edinburgh and handed the phone to me. His reaction 'What on earth are you doing at my sister's house'.