Back on the Road with Irene & Brian | Episode 11: WAV Yourself a Very Merry Christmas!

The calendar on the wall had barely turned from November 30th to December 1st before Mum was starting to make plans for Christmas. Like many families, trying to co-ordinate who will be where, and when, requires the sort of lengthy diplomacy usually seen at the United Nations. But Mum is nothing if not determined – especially when she has meal planning to do and, most crucially of all, needs to nab the prime Sainsburys’ Christmas delivery slot.

Once she’d pinned everyone down, her next mission was to organise a family trip out. For the last few years, a Christmas tradition for our family has been a visit to Dunster, and the Luttrell Arms for dinner. Dunster is a medieval village in the Exmoor National Park, and at Christmas it is particularly atmospheric with its pretty, narrow streets and the grand castle that presides over it. The Luttrell Arms sits at the heart of the village, and has a cosy country house charm as well as an excellent menu.

As Mum and I were discussing booking a table for this year, we tried to cast our minds back to the year before. How many of us had gone? What had we eaten? We couldn’t remember. We were really racking our brains but just couldn’t remember any of the details. “I know,” said Mum, “I’ll look for the photos on my phone.” So, she scrolled through December 2024 and… no photos of the Luttrell Arms or Dunster. It was a puzzle but then I remembered.

“We didn’t have the WAV last year,” I said, “So we didn’t go. We didn’t want to go without Dad.”

Mystery solved. In fact, we realised that last Christmas had been spent eagerly awaiting their WAV, which had been ordered but not yet delivered. That Christmas there had been a lot of hopeful conversations that started with “Next year, we’ll have the WAV and we’ll be able to …” Although we all had high hopes back then, I don’t think we really dared to think it would be as much of a success as it has been. And it’s funny to think that although the WAV has been in our lives just under a year, we already can’t remember life without it.

Smiling man in wheelchair being pushed by smiling woman, next to blue car.

This year, we’ll be able to enjoy our Dunster Christmas tradition again, thanks to everyone at Brotherwood. We’ll raise a glass to you at the Luttrell Arms – thank you for all the adventures so far and all the exciting new ones to come. And Happy Christmas!

About this Blog

‘Back on the Road’ follows how a Brotherwood Volkswagen Caddy Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) is changing the lives of Somerset residents, Irene and Brian.

Brian is a wheelchair user and the couple are 80-something-young. They have a Golden Retriever, Barnaby, who will sadly never experience the adventures a Brotherwood WAV makes possible, as he refuses to travel by car.

The blog is written by one of their daughters, and will bring regular updates of how they are rediscovering the joys of spontaneous travel thanks to Brotherwood.