Susie remembers holidays with her husband who died at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020.
Me, Ron, and Jenny went on holiday in August 2019 to Eastbourne to see the air show. Jenny was our carer on the holiday. We got to the hotel around 12 o'clock and had a rest as we were travelling. We had lunch and Ron was dressed up in his suit and I had nice clothes on too. We had to wait for our rooms to be ready. We had a room together and Jenny had a separate room.
After lunch we took our cases up in the life to our bedrooms and then we unpacked our case, put our clothes in the wardrobe and in the drawers, and put our things in the bathroom. Ron wanted to go downstairs to the bar for a drink. I had a rest as I was tired. He found out what time dinner was and then we went there for a nice evening meal. We had lovely food and great service – the waitresses were lovely to us. Made us feel special. After dinner we went into the entertainment – that was good. We introduced ourselves to Mark who was running the entertainment – he was in charge of the bingo and introducing the dancers. We sat down and watched the dancing and did some singing. We played bingo and there was quiz. But I wasn’t much good at the quiz. Ron bought drinks to our table. It was brilliant – we got up and danced with the dancers. We did this every night in the hotel. We had a brilliant time.
At our wedding there was a Tina Turner song ‘Simply the Best’ – we danced to that at our wedding and we danced to it together again at the holiday. It was lovely. After the dance I was tired and Ron made sure I was alright and made me a drink in our room.
Every morning Ron put on his nice shirt and trousers and we went to breakfast in the dining room at the hotel. It was a lovely room. He had cornflakes and a fry up every day and I had cornflakes and yogurt every day. Jenny said, ‘Shall we go for a walk?’ and we walked along the seafront and went to the pier. We stopped on the pier and Ron had a beer and we looked around the shops on the pier and then we stood by the flowers on the front.
Then we went back to the hotel and Jenny left us on our own for a while as we are quite independent.
We sat inside the hotel and looked through the window at the air show. Ron was really excited as he loved the Lancaster bombers - oh he loved them! We really enjoyed it and then we had lunch.
In the evening we got ready again and came down to dinner again – met Jenny and all went in the dining room together. It was a lovely hotel dining room and we watched the evening entertainment. Good old knees up and good old booze up!
The next morning, we woke up and Ron got a shower and put on a nice new T shirt and then we had breakfast – on the Wednesday we went for a walk and to this fishing place and walked along the promenade. Again, there were nice flowers. We all sat on a bench and enjoyed the sunshine and looking at the flowers.
When we got back we sat out on the balcony and watched the aeroplanes again. Again, we got changed for dinner and enjoyed the entertainment again – we were happy together. More or less we did the same every evening and these are lovely memories. I remember that every day we went on a walk and in the evening had a lovely diner and entertainment.
When Ron passed away last year no one could go on holiday because of the pandemic but even if I could have gone I wouldn’t have gone because me and Ron did everything together and always went on holiday together. I didn’t want to go on holiday last year without Ron, but if we can go on holiday this year I will because I have my friend Jean from next door. I asked Jean would she come on holiday this year to keep me company and she said yes, so this year it will be me, Jean and Jenny.
This is for other people if you have lost your husband your partner or your wife or your family member and you used to go on holiday with them think of the good memories and always think of your husband, your wife or your son. If you don’t want to go on holiday without them and you do want to go away this try to ask one of your friends to go with you. They might be able to keep you company instead of your person. Always think of the good memories that you had together.