It's About Time

Retirement was supposed to be a fresh start for Caroline, if only she could get a moment's peace!

CAROLINE jumped as her neighbour, Fran, called out to her when she returned from her Monday art class.

"How's it going?" Fran asked. "I'd love to paint, but I haven't an artistic bone in my body." "I'm not sure I have, either." Caroline sighed.

"But I'm having fun!" "What a lot of equipment!" Fran laughed.

She examined Caroline's easel, paper, paints, pencils and sketchbooks packed in her car boot.

"And what's with all these cake tins?" she added.

"I made a few cupcakes for the class," Caroline explained.

"It's nice for people to have something to eat during our break." "I thought the point of this early retirement was to do things for yourself," Fran reprimanded her.

"Not everyone else." "It's just a few cakes." Caroline shrugged. "I enjoy baking.

"I know what you're like." Fran looked at her seriously. "You're still running around after Gemma." Caroline's daughter, Gemma, recently divorced, had bought a rather run-down bungalow on the other side of the village.

Caroline was spending a lot of her time helping with the renovations.

"She's my daughter and she needs support just now," she retorted.

"Anyway, it's a hard habit to break after all this time!"

"And you've taken on that part-time job," Fran pointed out, following Caroline into the house.

"It's only a bit of help now and then," Caroline corrected her.

"You know Mrs Simpson up the road? Her grandson's trying to set up as a painter and decorator.

"I'm helping him prepare some flyers and sort out a bit of paperwork." "Don't take on anything else," Fran warned.

"This is your time, remember, after all those years of bringing up Gemma on your own." After Fran left, Caroline took her art equipment into her makeshift studio in her late husband's old shed.

There might be a grain of truth in what her friend said.

She picked up one of her paintings.