CFZ PEOPLE: Noela Mackenzie and Marjorie Braund

Much of this week has been taken up with visiting and caring for these two dear ladies, who are very dear to me, and much loved members of the CFZ family.

Mrs Braund is as well as can be expected. She seems to enjoy our daily visits. Yesterday we took Shosh and Gavin with us, and although she was convinced that Shosh's mother was my ex-wife, she was pleased to hear about Shosh's adventures as a newly qualified vet.

Noela was moved to Bideford Hospital yesterday. We shall be going in to visit her later.

Both ladies look so fragile and vulnerable, like baby birds in the nest, that one's heart aches not to be able to do more for them. The picture, by the way, is of Noela at my 45th birthday party at a long defunct Russian restaurant in Exeter. She distinguished herself by eating an enormous meal and drinking prodigous amounts of vodka, which would not have shamed a burly man half her age. She was, by the way, 82 at the time....