09/05/2016, A friend in need.

As I write I am waiting for a friend I made when I bought the holiday flat. We meet for coffee or lunch most of the time I come here. As I do not have an internet connection in the flat yet, I write in a coffee shop near her home [she is a permanent resident] so it makes sense to meet here. She is a widow,too,and we have a lot in common. Her husband passed away about seven years ago now,leaving a large house and a flat. Thinking she was doing the right thing, she transferred the title of the house to both of her children,keeping the flat for herself,decision she came to regret profusely,with the boy,a teenager, blaming her quite unjustly for the death of his father [he had brain tumor] and often telling his mother and his sister to get out of the house as it was his. My friend has been too ashamed to confide in any of her friends or family but opened up to me,a total stranger, often seeking advice. Patience,patience, patience, I said,one day hopefully in the not too distant future he will realize the error of his ways. And so it came to be. Now they have an easy mother-son relationship. The children do not have the finances to keep the house in good order,they really have no idea what needs to be done,the advice they get from various builders and professionals, is self-serving. They had a new roof put on,a bad job, it looks awful,the same goes for the chimneys and various bits of plumbing,a new boiler installed was the wrong type,too small to heat the large property sufficiently. I knew from the very beginning the upkeep of the house would be too much for the children,a money pit,and I have been proved right.