Last month I wrote a column that mentioned I was heading overseas later this year and the following week I received an email from readers Margaret and Kay.
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"We are two old ladies who share an apartment in a retirement village," they wrote. "Until COVID put paid to our travelling plans, we used to make an annual trip overseas and we've accumulated quite a lot of what we think are useful hints. Would you like to call in one day and discuss them with us?"
Now, with all due respect, one has to be careful about real-life interactions with readers of The Canberra Times. One never knows if you've written something controversial that's upset them, or if they have nefarious plans for you. I've watched Kathy Bates in Misery too many times to be lured into a situation that might not turn out well.
But I figured this one would be safe enough, so I arranged a visit and I can truly say it was the highlight of my year. Margaret is 92, Kay 91, the pair have known each other for close to 70 years. They met in London as young women in their 20s and have remained firm friends ever since.
Both women were librarians in their youth, now their apartment is full of books and mementos gathered during their travels.
Their travels! Lord, where do I start? London was just the start. They've been to Paris, New York, all the places you'd expect, including most of Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. But then they started to tell me about their real adventures: Iceland, Russia, North Africa and the Levant, Japan, even Iran and the Silk Road from China to Uzbekistan.
I asked them if they had any photographs of them both on their travels. Perhaps Kay thought I had nefarious plans of my own, raising an eyebrow with a questioning "why?". And they didn't show me any!
And, as they suggested, they did have plenty of travel tips for me. Each had prepared a handwritten list. Oh, how I've missed the delicate cursive script of generations gone by. My mother has the most beautiful handwriting, and these notes reminded me of that.
But to their lists. I picked up so many tips. While I might not need a new watch battery (nor spare ones for my hearing aid - an item on their packing list, bless), I'll now be thinking more about the contents of my carry-on luggage.
READ MORE: KAREN HARDY
The best hint they gave me was to wear my oldest underwear on the plane trip. That confused me until they said, once you reach your destination you just throw them away. You're not starting with washing to do, and there's a sense of freedom to it all, the perfect way to start a holiday.
I can imagine them in their mini skirts in the 1960s, perhaps they were in Paris at that point, tossing a pair of undies in the bin before heading out to the local bar for a glass of wine and some jazz.
More practically, they also suggested wearing panty liners on the trip, enabling you at least a couple of days out of the same pair of knickers. The best women are always the practical ones.
And take a robe. There'll be days, they said, when you come back to the hotel after a long day of touristing, have a shower or luxurious bath, but don't want to dress for dinner just yet.
Again I imagined them, perhaps in a hotel along the Nile, kicking back with a gin, in their silk robes, while they relaxed under the shadow of the pyramids.
The whole encounter made me happy for several reasons. How lucky I was to have stumbled across two such interesting women. Too often we ignore the elderly (it feels wrong to even call them that), and forget they have such fascinating stories to tell.
We forget that the elderly have lived full and rich lives, adventured and explored the world which we think belongs to us.
Just the fact two women were brave enough to head to the other side of the world, through the 1950s, '60s and '70s, fills me with joy. What does that say about my own hesitation? It says I should channel as much of these two women as I can.
"We won't sob into our pillows all night if you don't want to visit," their initial email said, "but it would give us pleasure to meet you and to share our hard-won wisdom."
The pleasure was all mine and I am wiser for it.
In so many ways.
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