A friend Isobel died recently and her funeral was today. Three of us used to work together and had kept in touch, meeting up a couple of times a year.
We tended to meet up at a central location. Isobel always had her husband drop her off as she was very bad at directions and a nervous driver. I always picked up the other friend as she doesn’t have access to a car and I am a very confident driver.
Today I left home to pick up the friend without a car to go to the funeral. I was listening to a discussion on the radio and completely missed the turnoff I should have taken. I was left with no alternative but to cross the river, take the first turnoff, circle round the block, recross the river, before circling back to take the correct road.
In explaining my detour we both realised at the same time that this was the sort of thing Isobel might have done and that I had in fact done a tight circuit round our old place of work.
Can’t help but wonder if that was Isobel having a laugh with us?