Writers Abroad Magazine Issue 3 September 2015 | Page 38

WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE Jany Gräf I met Jany early one morning, last August. She lived in the Westerwald region of Germany, which is where my youngest daughter was living at the time. We were on a short stopover in Frankfurt en-route to Berlin and so Jany offered to come to the airport. We had never met and were relying on photographs on the Writers Abroad site to recognise each other. These types of meetings are never easy, and we had a good laugh about how my hair was much longer than in my photo and hers was lighter and straighter and cut in a bob. We watched her coming up the escalator towards us and it seemed quite natural to give her a big hug, which was warmly reciprocated. We exchanged small gifts and she gave me a lovely pink notebook and pen in which she had written — Notes for your novel, Crilly. With love, Jany x I will treasure it and feel inspired more than ever to resume the writing of my book. It was so easy talking with her and my poor husband just sat there patiently as Jany and I spoke about everything from our love of roses, to Stourbridge where she had spent a lot of time, to music and, of course, about writing. In the short time I was lucky enough to spend with her, I got the sense that she was struggling. Her elderly husband was quite unwell, not that she complained, just a mere mention. Equally, it seemed that she was sad in some respect. 38 | S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5