Banishing The Blues

She'd come as a favour to her grandad... but where was he?

- BETH MCKAY

The drive to the manor house was lined with a stately avenue of trees. Their bare, winter branches were entwined with lights, sparkling like stars in the darkness. The taxi swept round the final corner to reveal the tall chimneys of Kenton House. Its elegant sash windows glowed in welcome.

"It's beautiful!" Helen sighed as she helped her grandfather out of the car.

"I told you it would be worth coming," Phil declared, a note of triumph evident in his voice.

It had taken a lot of persuasion. Jan, his daughter, usually accompanied him to the Burns Night celebrations, but she had an interview for a job the next day.

Luckily his student granddaughter, Helen, was home for a visit, and had agreed to come in her mother's stead.

Helen was fond of her grandad and knew that he was very proud of his Scottish roots. Phil's family had emigrated from Stonehaven to New Zealand when he was just a boy. He had enjoyed a wonderful childhood in Wellington on the North Island, where they had continued to celebrate Burns Night faithfully each year, drinking a whisky toast to their distant homeland.

Phil had returned to the UK as a medical student and worked as a family doctor until his retirement. The Scottish border was closer now, but Phil was less able to travel as he grew frailer.