I meet Ian and Anne during breakfast the morning after walking my last section of the South West Coastal Path. After chatting on many topics, I mention that Mary will be arriving soon and that we hope to visit two villages where Mary’s ancestors lived. They get excited because the villages are very close to their town. After we exchange emails and phone numbers, Anne looks at Ian, and then says, “We would love to show Mary and you around if you like.” What a nice gesture!

Four days later, Mary and I climb into the backseat of their car!

Obviously, Ian and Anne are a bit out of the ordinary. For several years, Ian commuted to work. A very long commute. One week of the month he flew from England to Minneapolis. Eventually, to eliminate the commute, they moved to Minnesota. Upon returning to England after several years, they bought a home in Tavistock, approximately 10-15 miles north of Plymouth. Both have health difficulties. Ian had a stroke; Anne has myelofibrosis. “You have to live your life even if you have health problems.” They joined a community choir in order to spend time together. Anne is an artist; Ian sings in a “shanty” group singing traditional folk songs. They are spirited and extremely kind folks.

When they pick us up that morning in Plymouth, they make arrangements to show us the villages of Callington where Mary’s ancestors the Truscotts lived and Harrowbarrow where her ancestors the Parkens lived. The plan is that we’ll then have lunch in order to take a break before visiting other nearby sites.

There is no better way for Mary to see the villages and region in which her ancestors lived. A bus would have simply gotten us to two villages, but we would have been restricted by the bus schedule hours. An expensive taxi driver wouldn’t have known all the places as well as Ian and Anne did. By Ian’s driving, we visit the Callington parish church. Because Anne knows a woman who happens to be in the church right then, we have a pleasant conversation about past and present life in Callington. Because Ian knows the Harrowbarrow post office location, we stop there and acquire the names and email of a couple who are interested in local history. Wonderful!

Despite my offer to take us out to lunch, we return to their relaxing home for fruit and a simple sandwich. Then, back on the road. They show us Tavistock, the home of Sir Francis Drake. They show us Dartmoor Prison. A dark prison built by prisoners of war from the American and French Revolutions. They show us the wild Dartmoor moors, the setting for Sir Conrad Doyle’s Hound of the Baskerville. They show us Calstock and the railroad viaduct which linked Calstock to the world.

Although I am able to treat us all to drinks at a “shabby chic” hotel lounge (as described by Anne), Mary and I can’t repay them enough. Without Ian’s and Anne’s help, Mary would not have been able to walk in some of the village lanes that her ancestors did, or to visit the church where they would have worshipped, or to acquire the names of a couple who will know more about her ancestor’s world. All of this was possible because “of a little help” from our new friends.