A message from the ethers

On 22 October 2021, I received a very mysterious message through my website. 

 

Patricia wrote that she spent her adult life trying to reconnect with her "very best school friend" and "soul mate", Marina Keys, who happened to be my great-aunt. They went to school at Loreto Convent, Asansol, and were "inseparable" – but lost touch when Patricia's family moved back to England. 

I used to spend many weekends at the Keys' house. We would leave the convent, cross through Saint Patricks' boys' school, over the wall and into the Keys' garden. Many a time we would sit under the tamarind tree, eat lots of tamarind and then wonder why we would get [a] tummy ache. I have always lived with regret that we lost touch. I remember that when we said goodbye for the last time we were both crying, and made a pact that we would stay in touch and not lose each other. However, life and distance prevailed, and I have spent many years searching for a contact with Marina.

I still don't fully understand how Patricia found me; she said she trolled heritage websites for years and eventually was directed to mine. How magical. I was able to share with her some details of the trajectory of my great-aunt's life, as well as photographs. 

Aunty Marina was the youngest of my great-grandparents' four children, and the two emails I received from Patricia before they stopped coming were full of sweet little glimpses about their family – plus a naughty anecdote about my grandmother (which she denies) sneaking out on her boyfriend's motorbike and telling the girls to "mind our own business." 

Mr. and Mrs. Keys were the kindest and most welcoming people to anyone who came to their house. The whole family was very close and I always felt welcome and wanted. 

And perhaps I get my chatty nature from Aunty Marina? 

At [school] once a year we would do [a] retreat for a week. No lessons, very little talking and lots of walking around the school grounds, praying and reading from our prayer books. There was a pond in the school grounds. Marina and I would walk around and around the pond with our prayer books up in front of our faces, and sneakily, never stop talking. There were never enough hours in the day to say what we had to say. Mother Dolores caught us one day and made us walk in opposite directions for an hour. So, to combat that, we used signs to each other as we passed. Mother Dolores always said that [...] we were the two most talkative girls in the school, and Marlene told us we needed to have more control. 

Marina, 2nd from left

Sadly, the two friends were unable to reunite because Aunty Marina had passed away in 2018. But thinking about their girlhood, I can't help but imagine how much they, like me, would have loved to have a podcast.