In 1999 I went to Skye with R. - we spent quite a lot of time at Staffin Bay - me painting and R. skimming flat grey stones across the water. There's only one shop at Staffin Bay - Staffin Bay Stores, just as it should be. R. struck up a conversation with the lady behind the counter one day, about the weather - we'd had to buy sun screen. She said it generally didn't stop raining for months.
A couple of years ago in our small village in Brittany we were having a meal at the Hotel du Lac. Towards the end of the evening the couple on the next table were making a fuss over Skye - giving her sparkly things from their ice creams. They asked her name and told her that they lived in Skye. Again R. struck up a conversation and realized that she was the lady from Staffin Bay Stores. They were renovating their dream home near the village and planning to move to Brittany.
We visited Staffin Bay Stores again on this trip and asked after the 'lady who'd moved to Brittany'. We were very sad to hear that she'd died from cancer and never made it to Brittany and her house with it's shiny new roof.
