by the Curious Scribbler
Another independent shop has closed its doors in Aberystwyth’s picturesque Eastgate Street. The windows, masked in brown paper give it a depressing air.
The now closed Snowdrop Care and Mobility shop in Eastgate Street
However the message posted to the customers gives pause for thought, for it reads “ We would like to thank all our customers for their support and we are sorry there were not enough of you”.
Snowdrop Care and Mobility sold walking aids and wheelchairs, lift-and-recline chairs and beds, mobility scooters, ramps, stair-lifts, continence aids and extra wide footwear for swollen feet. Not equipment many of us are eager to need. Can we conclude that Aberystwyth’s population is, in the main, ageing more healthily than the commercial predictions suggested? I hope so. Certainly there are plenty of the elderly out and about leading busy lives.
Those less fortunate, it is implied (and I hope there are not too many of them) will have to shuffle off to Haverforwest ( a round trip of 125 miles). On the other hand they may resort, as we all increasingly do, to doing their shopping on the internet. I understand that an extensive range of this equipment can be obtained through Lloyds Pharmacy.
A reproachful notice to customers of the now-departed shop
My condolences on the death of your mother. I enjoyed your pieces about her: lovely melding of the poignant and the humorous, laced with exasperation. I hope your Christmas doesn’t feel too bleak without her.
Actually it’s more of a relief, not having to keep hurrying from home buzzing with family and visitors to go and visit her room where conversation and life in general was conducted at a desperately slow and predictable pace.
I came to realise that she really prefered formulaic conversations along the lines of “Is it cold today?” or “How is the little dog?”, to genuine pieces of news, even nice news, from the outside world.
I walk by this sign at least once a week and i hadn`t noticed the wording `there were not enough of you` i say thank goodness