Robert Kennedy

Today I saw in the newspaper that Joseph Kennedy the grandson of Robert Kennedy opened his campaign for a seat in the US Congress.  This sent my memory off to the day I sat with my 2 year old son and watched the funeral of Senator Kennedy and it seems a long time ago.
Senator Robert Kennedy was murdered on the 6th June 1968 just a few years after his brother President John F. Kennedy was also murdered.  Robert had worked tirelessly for civil rights and to stop the war in Viet Nam; two things which made him very unpopular with the Establishment.
He had always lived in the huge shadow of his charasmatic elder brother and never believed himself to be liked.   There were many who did like and respect him, though he found it hard to believe.  He endeared himself to African Americans, native Americans, immigrants, the disaffected, the impoverished and the excluded - insisting on opportunities for employment and free health treatment for all the poorest people in the USA.

These were some of the people who lined the 270 miles of train track to watch him being taken to his last resting place in WashingtonDC.

Two days after his murder a state funeral was held in New York City attended by thousands of the great and good and watched by the ordinary New Yorkers.  Afterwards his  coffin was loaded on to a train which was to take him along with his close family members to be interred next to his brother, the President, in Arlington Cemetery in Washington.
The family settled down for the quiet journey to gather themselves together to face the second ordeal of the day.   They were so wrong - they and certainly not security could   have prepared themselves for the next few hours.
Thousands of the people he had been fighting for walked quietly to the railway tracks and stood in silent tribute to say their own 'goodbye'  - lined up for the whole of the 270 miles
 journey to Washington.
The train which had set off at a regular pace soon had to slow down for safety reasons
to such an extent that the funeral was eventually conducted late at night in the pitch darkness.   The first one in the history of Arlington ever to be so.
All that happened over 40 years ago and since then Hollywood has fought hard to spoil his memory - the truth of this we shall never know. Whether he would have carried out all his promises, we shall never know.  Whether he would have been voted in as President, we shall never know.  (They got Nixon instead!).
But an interesting and loving testimony came from the one nearest to him.  One her 80th birthday, his wife Ethel was interviewed on TV and asked why she had never remarried.  She looked genuinely puzzled for a second or two and then said,  'I was married to Robert Kennedy and still am, no man could walk within a mile of him in my eyes, I love him'.

How wonderful for someone to say that of us.

Stuttgart

A picture from Germany which looks pretty but it's cold and more snow is expected tonight - meanwhile here in the UK, feeling smug  - our temperatures are into plus for the first times in quite a while and it feels very pleasant.   My friend in Germany is very jealous of me having a single hyacinthe in my back garden whilst he does not know where his garden is!   Little things.

Greece

What has happened to this wonderful country?   My dear friend has a Greek daughter in law who is according to her - a perfect wife and mother.  Lovely, but she admits that her family in Greece have never paid a household bill....ever!  We just don't do that at home she states, we ignore them.
So what's changed for her?  the change is that whilst her husband works out a 5 year contract they now live in Germany where bills are paid as soon as they arrive - why? because that is what is expected in Germany.   She says that no one in Europe knows how bad things are in Greece - yet the Greeks are going on strike because they do not want any cuts.

Sister Catherine Wybourne reported today that the Church in Greece is feeding 35,000 people every day.   Hope religion bashers note where people go first for help when in dire need, says Sister Catherine.

Other friends of ours live in Spain - another beautiful country in dire straights.  They live in a very large apartment block by the sea which houses a mixture of Europeans.  Last year a note was sent to every owner asking for their share of a very large bill on the facade of the building.  Our friends paid up immediately as did their neighbours and waited for the work to begin - nothing happened for 15 months so all began to inquire.  Eventually fed up of the fussing Europeans the management posted a 'name and shame' poster with names and number of apartments.  All the German owners had paid up, as had all the British owners, all the French owners likewise; so who hadn't paid?   well it was the 23 Spanish owners - not one had paid a penny between them!  The new countries of the EU are still learning.

60 years - What a star

my new best friend!

I go for a swim to the local gym as often as I can and after 8 years have got to know a number of people.  Recently a new man has joined who it is not easy to ignore.
He suddenly appears at the end of the pool and stands there stretching his limbs.  He is not a young man neither is he small....he's huge, more than 6' in height and about the same in width!
He stretches out his arms to the side and looks just like the 'Angel of the North!' as he stays for quite a few minutes in that position - this give some people the chance to climb out of the pool and make a hasty exit before
he gets in and causes the tidal wave with his massive frame and his huge arms dipping in and out of the water in the style of a 'crawl'.
He thankfully only swims a couple of lengths before retiring to the jacuzzi for an hour or so, where he sits with his arms stretched out and resting on the edge of the bath whilst trying to engage anyone in conversation.  Yep!  he does irritate me and I admit to have changed my swimming times on occasion in the hope I would avoid him but I felt guilty when I overheard other people saying disaproving things about him and moving away stealthily
so the other morning I said 'hello' to him.  Big mistake ...he's now turned into my new best friend and greets me with a smile and wave whenever he appears (and I try to disappear.  I admit to a feeling of joyful relief when this morning I overheard him (yes! his voice is huge too) telling another man that he was trying to get fit before going in hospital for surgery and as that time had now come he would be missing from our ranks for quite some time.   Phew!