Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

You have probably seen more of the Cemetery, without being morbid, than many of the members on the Electoral Roll, because you have taken the trouble to climb the hill, pull the bell and wait for Carlos or his lovely wife Rita to pull the string that opens the green door! Inside is nearly five acres of flowers, plants, trees and of course graves, some of them very interesting. Just ask Carlos, who now looks after the Cemetery full time on his own, about any grave and he is only too pleased to help.
Carlos has a heart problem, he had a scare a month back was taken to hospital only to be told there was nothing seriously wrong, thank goodness. When being told he could go home and being asked where he lived, replied, of course, at the Cemetery! The nurse had a fit, thinking he thought he was dying, she was only reassured on being convinced he did actually live there, in fact he was born there. His father: also head gardener in those days had four gardeners under him: was given an MBE for services to the British community. Now carlos is on his own as we had to let the other full time gardener Antonio go last year, he was 67 and drawing his pension, due to the drop in visitor numbers which always has a dramatic effect on us, as about 90% of our congregations are you lovely people.
Since very few of us go to the Cemetery, and even fewer have ever been inside our house that Carlos and Rita live in there, it is not surprising although it should have been, that we were unaware of the state of the electrical wiring. The house, admittedly small, is like many on Madeira when it comes to electrics. The original installation maybe 50 years ago is still the working system, heavily overloaded, with wires extended all over the place, connections on connections, you get the idea? Although the Fire Brigade is the other side of the Cemetery wall it is no reason for complacency.
The house was rewired double quick and conflagration avoided.
Then it was found that in effecting the rewiring when the old cracked cables were pulled of the walls they also pulled off sheets of the emulsion, because, yes you have guessed, underneath the emulsion is that old nightmare we had in the UK years ago, distemper! Three estimates coming for repainting.
Carlos and Rita have a washing machine out of the ark, a 16 years old Candy, Carlos has repaired it so many times himself there can´t be much left of the original. Last week it went to the washing machine heaven, better than the cemetery! New washing machine. Rita is thrilled, the old one used to walk around the room. Whilst taking decorators around for the quotes, to our dismay it was discovered that Rita cooks on an old gas ring on top of a cupboard, if she wants an oven they have to light the wood burning old cast iron range, that our grandmothers used to have, as surely lots of you can remember! New cooker! Rita is now walking around with a permanent smile on her face, and not before time.
This has been for us a timely warning, if belated, that what is out of sight should not be out of mind, especially when it comes to people!