The Gathering Place

Thomas Beck has spent many years blaming others, particularly his wife, for what has gone wrong in his life.

When his health takes an unexpected turn and he can no longer drive his beloved classic car, he decides to drive it one more time before he sells it. That drive is going to take him on a journey he did not expect to a place he did not really believe existed. He stops at the scene of an accident and sees some of his neighbours, who do not seem to be aware of him. Thomas, being the man he is, shrugs and moves away waiting for the road to clear. Suddenly everyone has gone and he soon comes to the realisation that he is unable to leave the road

He is on a cold grey road, alone. How can he get off it? And if he does, where can he go? He can not leave the road. Thomas is very frightened but then hears a disembodied voice tell him he will be found and taken to safety, to The Gathering Place. Still very much afraid, he waits. They come but so does something else that will do everything possible to get him.

L M Ryan was born in Ireland and is convent educated. She lived there for eighteen years before leaving to live and work first in Staffordshire, then moved permanently to Chiswick in West London. She met and married her husband William and brought up her four children there. Sadly she lost her eldest daughter in 2012 and then her husband in 2019. She has two sons who are engineers and a younger daughter who is a PA. She also has one grandchild, a boy, Jude. Lucinda now lives alone in a sheltered housing unit and, as well as writing, is a keen gardener.