Eric Johns

Goodbye, Granny Eric Johns

""At least you once had a life - and perhaps one day I'll have one,"" Seb tells his great-grandmother, but only occasional words draw a response. Her bitterness at being placed in an old people's home is fading as her memory melts away. During Seb's visits she scatters hints of a life she has kept secret from her family. Did she once have another identity? What did she do in the war? Why does no one know? And what has she forgotten that torments her? Seb tries to unravel her past and reconstruct her life. At times she falls silent and drifts away clinging to a fragment of memory. Then Seb is left to soliloquise about the dissatisfactions of his own life. He describes his attempts to begin a relationship with a girl - any girl - and in desperation hits on the idea of an arranged romance. But his efforts are being sabotaged.