We were far away from the big cities of the east coast, but technology finally even filtered through to Hayward's Crossing. I had a computer now, and with some effort, because there was no-one local qualified to hold lessons, I taught myself some of the software programs which helped me with managing the running and finances of Mackenzie Station. Finally, we even became connected to the Internet. It was very slow, and not much use for anything but emails, but it did help me stay in touch with friends. In a way I was sorry about this as I still felt that a handwritten letter was so much nicer than typed characters on a screen or printed out on paper. I still treasure the letters, mainly from my Mother, which I kept stored in a cardboard box, and also the letters I sent to her and Dad which they kept too. They were some of the things I brought back after Dad died.

One day an email arrived from Marie's son Michael, and to my surprise it was to tell me that he and Sarah were coming out to Australia. Apparently he had been offered a great position in the Australian branch of the company for which he worked, and they would be living in Sydney. The contract was initially for three years and if all went well, then they might stay on, perhaps permanently.

“Oh dear,” I thought “I hope Marie doesn't think I encouraged them.”

Early the following morning I phoned Marie in England where it would be late evening.

“Hello Lesley, I thought I'd be hearing from you,” she said.

'Dear me,' I thought 'This sounds ominous.'

“Marie, I've had an email from Michael and I wanted to assure you I played no part in encouraging them to come to Australia.”

She laughed, and that was good to hear. “It's alright Lesley. They both told me how they had mentioned it as a possibility when you met them just before they got married, and how you were scrupulous about taking a neutral stance.”

“Perhaps I should have mentioned it to you,” I replied “But it was just days before the wedding and I felt it was the last thing you would want to be thinking about right then. Besides, it was just an idea at that stage.”

“I believe you,” she said. “I can't vouch for Sarah's family, but then you're unlikely to meet them again, so perhaps that doesn't matter.”

Five months later, when Michael and Sarah were settled in a rented apartment in Sydney, I flew down to see them. They were very happy with their decision to come out. Thanks to computers, they were able to keep in regular contact with their families back in England. I was quite envious with the speed of the connection they had compared to mine out in the bush.

“We have news for you too,” said Michael with a grin “Sarah is expecting a baby.”

“Congratulations!” I cried and gave her a hug, thinking to myself 'well that complicates things a bit.'

What did occur to me was that Marie and Michael would almost certainly come out to see the new baby, and perhaps Sarah's parents would too, although I wasn't sure if they would be keen to see me, that is if they harboured doubts about whether I had encouraged Michael and Sarah to come out to Australia.

I kept in regular touch with Marie and also Michael and Sarah and was pleased to hear six months later that they had a healthy baby boy they named Jason Edward. As I predicted, Marie and Michael flew out a couple of months later to see their grandson. They did not have time to come and stay at the Station, so John and I flew down to Sydney for a couple of days to see them, and also of course the new baby. It was wonderful to see them again.

I could see that Marie had something on her mind so when we were alone, I asked her what it was.

“Look, I probably shouldn't be saying anything, but I couldn't help noticing that whereas you have barely changed, John seems to have aged a lot since we last saw him.”

“Well he is over twenty years older than me of course,” I replied “And our age difference seems more apparent now. I am dedicated to taking good care of him, as much as I can.”

I knew my eyes were filling with tears, and Marie put her arm round me and said “I'm sorry Lesley, I shouldn't have said anything about it.”

Sadly, she was only expressing what I knew in my heart to be true. John was showing his age, and I was starting to think of the inevitability of a time when I would face the future without him.

“It's alright Marie. You are just saying what I think but never speak of because it's too hard to face.”

All I could do was take the best care I could of John and hope that we still had many years left to enjoy.

Michael and Sarah did decide to settle in Australia and subsequently had three more children — twin girls and another boy. I could understand how hard it was for their parents, them being so far away, although they did visit their families in England every two to three years, and their parents come out to visit from time to time. I did in the end meet Sarah's parents again, and thankfully they had accepted by then that I had not encouraged them to migrate. They even said it was nice to know that there was someone else from the family living here.