Old And New FLAMES

To this day, Karen’s mum Paula still asked her, ‘Why couldn’t you and that nice Joe Lee make a go of it?

You made such a nice couple.’

‘Nice’ was both Paula’s one-size-fits-all approval rating and her opt-out clause when she wasn’t listening, but she worried sometimes that her daughter was still single ‘all these years later’.

This Christmas was a case in point. Karen had come home for a quiet, cosy retreat, only to be reminded that the Lees were having a ‘do’ next door on New Year’s Eve.

‘What sort of do?’ she asked her mother suspiciously.

Paula plucked a stiff, white card off the tinsel-decked mantelpiece. ‘It’s “a festive barbecue”,’ she announced.

‘Good grief,’ grizzled Karen. ‘What’s that when it’s at home?’

‘SHE WORRIED SOMETIMES THAT HER DAUGHTER WAS STILL SINGLE ALL THESE YEARS LATER’

‘I asked Monica that myself. Apparently, it’ll be “turkey skewers with jacket potatoes, roasted chestnuts and brazier-flamed, leftover Christmas pudding”. You know Monica and her notions.’

‘You and Dad go, then,’