Shangri La (continued)

I chose the name Shangri La because it is a fictional place and I want to keep my chronicle free from lawsuit attacks.

Mifanwe is the name of the heroin in my father's bedtime stories, whose adventures miraculously mirrored my own.  I liked his stories about her better than those read to me from books. 

So far I have only had one response, that from Trev.  Please let me know if you  would like to know more details of the place where Mifanwe has moved to.


Chronicles of Shangri La (continued)

Mifanwe had always been called Miv, so from now on that will be her name.  She gazed at the stacks of unpacked boxes around her,  the furniture placed wherever it would fit, and much too big for the smaller rooms she was to inhabit.

Little by little the living space became more habitable.  There was a little alcove off the kitchen she has chosen to have covered in linoleum instead of carpet.  This became the tiny dining room, which was just large enough to accommodate the table that opened to twice it's size when the hinged top opened.  Eight chairs were too many, but some could be stored in the garage.  The bedstead,  new mattress and night tables were delivered and the foam mattress moved to the guest room.  She now had a proper bed.  With the help of her son, who lived a couple of hours drive away, and both grandsons, the furniture was assembled and pictures hung.  The boxes, stacked in the living room five and even six on top of each other, gradually dwindled as places were found for the things acquired over 64 years of marriage that she could not bear to give away.

Those first few weeks passed in a kind of  trance.  Get up in the morning.  Push the button,  make some coffee, get mail at the near by clubhouse, and back to the work of sorting and unpacking.  Miv explored the grounds on foot, for exercise and to find her way around.  She had been provided with some rudimentary maps by the Marketing Department, but the names of the streets and buildings were not helpful.  Names such as Canyonside, Gardenside, Oakside, Mountainglen, Lakeview, Lakeglen, all seemed to blur together.  There was a large meeting room called Santa Cruz Hall, but it was several exploratory walks before she found it.