That day

Today is above all windy. All the garden is dancing around, swirling this way & that.

Yesterday we went on our test drive. We think we’ve found our car. The Fox is thrilled. I’m not quite so sure. I will admit I did find driving it on the whole good. I don’t drive often so I tend to be anxious about a totally strange car, but this one I took to easily. A few things will take some adjustment but I’m sure I can so adjust. My niggle is a rather large blind spot as I was looking to the right when I joined a busy bypass road, but at least part of that problem is because we hadn’t properly adjusted the wing mirrors. Normally going from a slip road onto a motorway for example, I would use the wing mirrors but I couldn’t in this instance & the angle of traffic coming from the right was almost like that of a slip road onto a motorway.

However, the test drive did bring back memories. As I drove through High Newton village centre I remembered the last time we’d stopped at that pub. It was the day I’d come to the conclusion I had to get a wheelchair. Days out were just too painful without one to be enjoyable.

I suppose I’d already been reminded of that day at the garage, when another customer had stopped to ask us where we’d got the wheelchair as his wife had MS, was struggling & my chair seemed a lot lighter than some he’d seen. We assured him it was a NHS one. He’d never even realised she could have a NHS chair so was curious about how to get one. I told him ask her GP. He was anxious as she was still at a stage when she could still walk a bit. It was just days out were very difficult. So I told him of my day that convinced me of the need to apply for a chair.

That particular day we went to the gardens at Graythwaite. I spent the trip literally hobbling from one bench seat to the next. The gardens were beautiful but there was little pleasure for me as I hurt so much. On the way home, after the visit, we stopped at the pub in High Newton. The sheer relief of a prolonged sit was unbelievable. The pain took weeks to finally settle down. And I applied for my first wheelchair shortly after!

Graythwaite Hall & gardens