Today I said Goodbye to my Brother

That sounds so dramatic, doesn’t it? No, dear readers, he is not gone from this earth, just from this country. And I am sad. Next week, he and his wife emigrate to Canada. They are excited and nervous in almost equal measure. They have a new home, a new life, a new continent. I am happy for them, but the West coast of Canada is a long way away. No longer will I be able to ring them whenever I feel like it – I shall have to calculate carefully to make sure that I am not ringing in the middle of the night. No longer can I pop down for the weekend, or meet up for lunch in a mutually agreed place half way between our homes. No longer can I ring him when my computer plays up and hope that he will sort it out for me – what seemed semi-reasonable when he was 200 miles away seems completely unreasonable from thousands of miles away.

But the sadness goes far deeper than that. Many years ago, we both moved country, looking for a better life and a better education. Then, I am not sure that either of us believed that it was permanent. We went through the upheaval, the difficulties of building a new life, making new friends, understanding a new, if familiar, culture. Since then, he and his wife have roamed across Europe, where the job and their instincts have taken them, and I have watched and marvelled as my baby brother became a success, far overtook my own poor efforts. I am immensely proud of him.

And now they are turning their backs on the old continent, disillusioned by the lack of enterprise, by the ridiculous political correctness, by the way that all service seems to be grudging and nobody seems to care. Today, as we sat at lunch sharing a last meal and a last bottle of wine, he told me about the car salesman who has agreed to release their new car after only a credit card deposit and an uncleared cheque to be handed over on the day. He told me of the television engineer who is coming in to work early on the day after they arrive, because it is more convenient for them, even though they have never met.  He told me of the estate agent who, when the purchase on their new house completed, left a small gift in the house.

I look forward to getting to know their new home. I shall greatly enjoy getting to know a new place and beginning to understand a new culture. I look forward to all the opportunities that will open up for them. But I am sad that they have to go so far to attain this. Sad that this once great country can no longer provide these things. Where did we go so wrong?