All good things must come to an end, and this was it. The last day was less of a walk, more of a ramble with friends, just about masking a pub crawl.
Amanda and Mel set off together, whilst I moved the van to the car park of The Chequers in Swinford, so I knew we wouldn’t have far to go to bed.
Amanda’s good friends Sue and Paul, and his brother Andy, collected me and took us back to meet the girls at Church Lawford. Coffee in the sunshine as soon as they opened at 11:30, then we were across the fields to Harborough Magna and the Old Lion, a newly renovated gastro pub. I couldn’t have planned it better (the route long established, serendipity landed us in a fabulous pub for the last days lunch. We were all tickled pink, especially Mel whose veggie Haloumi stack was one to be remembered, and made the rest of us jealous in a very first world kind of way.
Moderating the alcohol intake, we headed on to Churchover. Along the road, just after crossing the M6, Neil came along honking his horn, and we were joined by cousin Liz and son James. Alas we left Churchover dry, onwards to a stop at the church in Shawell where Neil and Amanda married 23 years ago. Fortunately Shawell’s pub was open and looking resplendently nouveau, so another glass was enjoyed by all.
The others played the joker and took the car to the finish post, leaving Amanda, Mel and myself to walk the last couple of miles, crossing the M1 and down into Swinford.
We marked the finish on the steps of the Old Chapel, which had been the last home Amanda had shared with her parents before marriage, and we left her for a moments quiet reflection and headed round the corner to the pub.
Greeted warmly by the assembled masses of friends and family, relieved and grateful for everyone’s wonderful support.
Needless to say, if you haven’t made a contributions yet, or feel she’s worth at least anymore penny, you can make a donation at https://www.justgiving.com/Amanda-Flavell/
Amanda would dearly love to achieve her target of £5,000, so please dig deep.
