Gloria had gone to the hospital that day for what she thought was a regular check-up for a condition she had – pulmonary fibrosis. While she was there, the consultant had asked to speak with her. And he had bluntly said, ‘This is the end now, Gloria. I’m going to arrange palliative care for you from this point forward.’
Gloria was shocked to her core. She knew she had been ill, but she had never been told it was a terminal condition. ‘Am I dying?’ she asked the consultant.
He wouldn’t answer her directly, not at first. But she kept on at him, until he conceded that she was.
‘How long do I have?’ asked Gloria numbly.
It was only a matter of months.
Gloria was stunned. Had it been longer, she thought she would have coped better. The suddenness was too scary. That cliff edge of nothing seemed too perilously close. It focused her brain in peculiar ways, giving her a crystal clarity on what was important in life. And she realised that the one thing she really, really wanted to do before she ran out of time was to visit her beloved Felix.
She messaged her privately on Facebook. ‘I was planning to meet you in October,’ she wrote. ‘Please could we bring this forward? I got told today that I have less than a year to live. I really want to meet you before I go.’
She couldn’t die, she told herself, before she’d met Queen Felix.
Her message came through to Angie Hunte and Angela Dunn. They put their heads together and, just as they’d done for the giveaway day the year before, they came up with a way to make Gloria’s visit a very special day – a day that neither Gloria, nor Felix, would ever forget.
On 16 July 2018, Gloria sat on the train heading north, feeling a buzz of excitement flowing through her veins that was even more enlivening to her than the oxygen flowing into her nose from the cannula taped beneath it. She clutched the heavy black bag that held her portable oxygen tank tightly to her side, knowing it was helping to prolong her life and energy – knowing that it was allowing her to take this special trip to meet the station cat. Meeting Felix, in fact, was the number-one item on the emergency bucket list that she had hastily pulled together since receiving her prognosis just fourteen days before.
There were other items on the bucket list. She wanted to fly in a helicopter; to ride on the Orient Express; to travel first class; and to see the Blackpool Illuminations. But Felix trumped them all. Gloria felt that she wouldn’t be able to relax – to face what was coming – without first meeting her furry friend.
Somewhat anxiously, she adjusted the settings on her oxygen and tried to settle back in her seat for the long journey. She was a pale woman in her mid-fifties with short black hair, much slimmer than she once had been, as she’d recently lost weight. Though it had been immensely difficult adjusting to her prognosis, now that this special day had arrived she mostly felt excitement, rather than the fragile vulnerability that had haunted her since leaving hospital. It was a good feeling, a feeling that Felix herself had brought about. Though Gloria knew she wouldn’t have long with the station cat – knew, from pictures posted online of other visitors’ experiences, that it would most likely be a quick five-minute stroke if she was lucky, as the solo station cat was so much in demand – she nevertheless sensed in her weary bones that it would still be worthwhile. Just the idea of seeing the cat with her own eyes felt special. She turned to the lady sitting next to her as the English countryside flashed past the window outside, and her excitement suddenly bubbled over into speech.
‘I’m going to meet Felix today!’ she told her gaily. ‘Felix, the Huddersfield station cat!’
Even saying the words, it didn’t seem real – too much a dream come true.
Her fellow passenger gave her a thin smile – she clearly thought her a bit mad – but Gloria didn’t let her reticence affect her. ‘She means a lot to me,’ she confided further. ‘And this is something that I have to do … while I’m still well enough to do it.’
Speaking to strangers was out of character for Gloria who was, on the whole, a very shy woman. So, as she arrived at York station from Devon – where the two Angelas had told her they should meet – she felt extremely apprehensive about rendezvousing with these two unfamiliar women who had promised to take her to Felix. She clutched her oxygen closer and walked slowly along the platform. To her frustration, she was already finding that she couldn’t walk far without needing a rest. It was a very, very difficult thing to notice your own deterioration, and to know that your fate was just round the corner.
Further along the platform, Angela Dunn nudged Angie Hunte. ‘I think that must be her,’ she said, pointing out the slim figure.
They went over and introduced themselves, and Angie Hunte carefully took the heavy oxygen bag from Gloria, so that she could carry it for her instead. ‘Now, let’s go to Huddersfield!’ the team leader said brightly.
‘Oh, but I need to get a ticket,’ burst out Gloria. ‘My ticket was only to York.’
Angie smiled at her warmly. ‘Don’t worry about that, sweetheart,’ she said. ‘We’ve got all that sorted out for you.’
And to Gloria’s surprise, she was escorted on to a TPE service as a guest of honour – without having to pay her fare. Not only that, but the Angelas ushered her into first class.
Gloria couldn’t believe it. Travelling first class was on her bucket list! This was turning out to be a bigger adventure than she could ever have imagined.
The three women sat quietly as they travelled, taking their lead from Gloria. Gradually, however, the Tiverton lady started to talk. She told them shyly that she recognised them from Felix’s book, which she’d loved reading. She told them how very, very sick she was. And she told them that all she wanted to do was get to Felix.
‘Well, we’re nearly there now,’ Angie told her reassuringly, as the train pulled into Leeds. ‘Next stop: Huddersfield.’
Gloria gazed out of the window with rapt attention. Having read Felix’s book, it was like seeing a story spring to life as the train drew closer to Felix’s home town. There was the iconic landmark of the Emley transmitting station … There was the corrugated-iron roof of the station, where the pigeons lived … There was the Huddersfield station sign, declaring that they had arrived. Gloria disembarked with a buzzing in her belly, feeling excited to be breathing the same air as her favourite cat.
But even though she felt a surge of excitement, she could manage only staggered steps as she stepped clumsily off the train. She inhaled deeply, but her lungs relied more on the oxygen under her nose to help her catch her breath than the magic air she was finally sharing with Felix. The two Angelas exchanged glances. Rather than taking her straight to meet the cat, they first invited her into the first-class lounge.
There, Gloria said that she wanted to change. Though she kept on her ripped jeans, she slipped off her black top and revealed a white T-shirt with pink lettering that she’d had specially made. Its hot-pink words read ‘THE BUCKET LIST LADY’.
Neither Gloria nor the two Angelas made any comment on her clothes. Angie Hunte sensed that Gloria did not want that, did not want their commentary. She had a very clear awareness of Gloria preparing to meet Felix – not only sartorially, but emotionally too – and there was an intensity that was palpable. Gloria had a nervous energy about her now. She kept putting her hand over her mouth as though she couldn’t quite trust herself to speak, couldn’t quite trust her senses that she was here at last, about to live out her dream.