Once we'd got back from Tewksbury, I got to work calling people with the news. If you've been reading, you'll know that I wasn't looking forward to telling our mates P__ and P__, who'd had the ectopic pregnancy. Actually having to do it was certainly nerve wracking. I wanted to speak to some of our other friends about it before I spoke to them. I was able to speak to a couple of them and pass on our news and then sound them out about it. They seemed to think that P__ and P__ were pretty upbeat about things given what had happened.
I dialed P__'s phone number. For a moment, I didn't think he was going to pick up and I won't deny that I felt a moment of relief. Then he picked up. They'd had a BBQ on the Saturday, which we been invited to but couldn't attend, so I asked him about that and we were saying what a nice evening it had been. It turns out that they had a cloud of verminous midges decend upon their garden at about nine o'clock and had to go inside. I suggested it might have been a vengence thing because P__ and P__ had filled in their pond a few years back.
I knew the time had come, crunch time, so I took a deep breath and said, 'Look, I'm actually calling with a bit of news. It's about us and a, er, baby... er... Kate's pregnant... just about 12 weeks...' Not, I think, my finest hour, but P__ immediately offered his contratulations and said it was excellent news. I said to him that of course we had known at the meal a fortnight before, but that we weren't telling anyone at that stage. We chatted for a few minutes longer and then we bade each other goodbye. He said several times how pleased he was for us.
He seemed to have been remarkably cheerful, but of course he still had to go and tell his wife. I just hope that went okay. I'm sure it would have. I know that one of my readers commented that people who were dealing with the fallout of a miscarriage were perfectly able to be happy for other people despite their own sadness, and that, very happily, seems to be the case. It wasn't a call I'd been looking forward to making, but I'm extremely glad it's done.
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