But where?
She wasn’t on social media anymore. If people did say things about her, what did it matter? Sticks and stones and all that … So … why not? Maybe growing a pair was what she needed to talk about. Bravery wasn’t painting your face blue, waggling a sword in the air and shouting oaths of loyalty. Bravery came in all shapes and forms. She thought Sue was brave for getting out of bed every morning. She thought Flo was brave for not acting like an old person. Could bravery come in the form of a chubby, Indian, goth girl who froze when life threw ‘fix it now’ moments at her? Maybe.
They rode along the canal towpath and into a woodland, dappled with early spring sunlight, the idea growing in her along with the spring flowers poking out here and there … like little fragile promises of good things to come.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
ONE MONTH LATER
‘Well I know I’ll be racing down to get one!’
Kath turned away from her husband who was pretending to drive a car and then crash it. She put on her brightest smile for camera three. ‘A ten-pound voucher for an MOT? Amazing!’ She let her astonished smile soften. ‘Now, as part of our popular new series where we meet the riders who’ll be joining me and my trainer Fola in four short weeks for our Trip of a LifeTime, today we’re off to Bicester—’
‘Wanting some bargain designer wear, are you, love?’ Kev cut in. ‘I thought it was all lycra and padded bums for you and your crew these days.’
Kath oh-ho-ho-ho’d, as she checked the monitors and saw that Kev had indeed signaled for them to open the camera angle up to a two-shot. He’d been doing that a lot lately. Not letting her have one on one ‘chats’ with the viewers. People want crazy Kath. They want fun Kath. Not all of this bloody, earnest bullshit you keep on about. It’s getting right tedious it is.
Actually it had proved very popular. Particularly, and rather astonishingly, in the wake of Fola marching the ‘scrubby ASBO waiting to happen’ off of live television.
‘About time someone dealt with the little heathens properly,’ said one caller. ‘I’d have done far worse,’ said another. ‘Disrespecting Kath like that.’
Since then, viewing figures regularly peaked when the segments about the people joining Kath on the charity ride aired. It turned out people didn’t want jolly jolly all of the time. In between the cream pies in faces and ice bucket challenges, they also liked discovering they weren’t the only ones going through tough times and, against the odds, finding a way to survive them. Make a difference, even.
‘Actually, Kev, whilst you’re not wrong—’
‘Am I ever wrong?’
Oh, ho-ho-ho. A voice in Kath’s ear told her camera two was on a one shot. ‘What the team here at Brand New Day hadn’t bargained on was finding not one, but three women within a few miles of one another who are in training to join us.’
‘Three? Crikey. What’s in the water in Bicester, I wonder?’
‘Kindness?’ Kath suggested with an impish smile. ‘Generosity? That was my take, anyway, when I went down there with a crew yesterday afternoon. I will warn you. You’ll see a side of me you don’t often see.’
‘The back side?’
‘Oh, ho ho ho … you’re just full of ’em today, aren’t you, Kev? Why don’t we take a look at the first of our Three Amazing Women of Bicester mini-films.’ She gave a nod and the taped segment began to play.
Kev pulled off his mic and stormed off set, muttering something about the balance of the show being out of sync. Funny that. Kath could say hand on heart it didn’t feel comfortable … but it did feel right. So, unlike her husband, she sat back and watched as the segment played.
The first shot was of Florence Wilson riding her bicycle along a canal. It cut to her waving to Sue and Sunita, or Raven as she liked to be called.
Kath’s nose crinkled as her own voiceover rang through the studio. All these years and she still hadn’t got used to the sound of it. This time however … this time she sounded properly invested.
‘Florence Wilson isn’t your average seventy-two-year-old grandmother. She lives here, in a sleepy village just a few miles outside of Bicester. Flo, as she prefers to be called, has travelled the world not once, but hundreds of times in her role as a flight attendant with British Airways. While she may have retired from the friendly skies, she has far from retired from life. Together with friends Sue Young and Raven Chakrabarti, she will be joining us at the end of May for our Trip of a LifeTime.’
The segment cut to Florence waving goodbye to Sue and Raven as they carried on down the towpath. Then it showed Florence putting a poultice on an Irish Wolfhound’s leg, Florence waving goodbye to her husband, getting in her car and then, through the magic of television, arriving at work all in a quick ten-second edit.
Kath’s voiceover continued, ‘By day, Florence works for the NHS 111 call service taking calls from all over Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire counties.’
Kath smiled as a two shot of the pair of them appeared on the monitor. She’d really liked Flo. A proper can-do woman with extra bags of verve in tow.
‘So this is where it all happens, is it, Flo?’ She watched herself ask.
‘Absolutely.’ Florence made a grand gesture with her arm. ‘This is where hundreds of calls a day are taken, all helping the good people of Britain.’
On-screen Kath made a forgive me for putting it this way, but … Many women your age would be quite happy to put their feet up. What is it that keeps you so active?’
‘I like to live life
