Another door OPENS

Judy needed to take on a fresh challenge in life but what?

Tap tap tap… The sound pulled Judy away from thoughts such as ‘What am I doing here?’ and ‘Is it too late to go back?’

Back to her old life. Back to before all of this. Could something be exciting and terrifying at the same time? Today proved that, yes, it could.

The thing that was happening had started small, like so many things do.

It began with a bargain or two. Judy had always been one for a bargain.

‘Why does our shopping have yellow labels, Mummy?’ her twins Clare and Jack would ask loudly at the checkout. Judy would do what was now called ‘styling it out’.

‘All the best food has yellow labels, kids. And only the best for you.’

In truth, the yellow-label food was good. Just near its sell-by date, that was all.

In recent years, since the kids had flown the nest, many years after their father had, Judy often felt she was past her own sell-by date. She’d not long retired from her job as an art technician at a local college and was between opportunities. There was more she could be doing, she was sure, but what exactly?

What she did best was pootling about, in truth. Popping into town for coffee, meeting her friend Sue at the weekend, who still worked full time (and had the disposable income to show for it), picking books up in the library, browsing in charity shops.

Judy had discovered the wonder of charity shops once she retired and her time had become more elastic.