Mike's Saudi (45) The end

Life was pretty good now, the boss and I became friends and we seem to work well together for about a year then disaster came from an unexpected source. As part of my job I had had a telephone installed in the villa so that I was on call. Naturally we gave the number to our family in the UK. You may recall that Karen my daughter had been repatriated when she was 18 (Saudi law) and had settled down with Syb’s parents in Eastbourne.

However she was having a rough time so much so that I was afraid that she might take her own life. She would phone us maybe once a week in tears her troubles seemed to be growing, Syb and I believed she needed our support permanently. There was nothing to do but go home and help her, so with regret I handed my notice in. First I told my boss who came up with all sorts of alternatives including a 6 month sabbatical, very tempting but I knew if we were to support Karen it had to be permanent or we would be going through the same scenario on our return. So just before Christmas 1983 we came home to our little house in the Lake District. Now it is 2015 now and we still talk about our time in Saudi as though it was yesterday.