Yet more

I’m beginning to wonder when it will end.

Yesterday we ventured down to the village pub. We were joined by a couple of friends. One had learnt a golfing mate had died over the New Year, the other’s mother had had a severe stroke over Christmas & was still in hospital. Unfortunately, in the latter case, the mother had had a severe stroke several years ago & been left partially paralysed from that one, so how she will be after this is debatable. It is certainly questionable if her 92 year old husband will be able to continue to look after her at home. On the other hand, she is starting to shuffle around about on her zimmer frame so maybe things will be okay.

I keep hoping to be able to report good news for a change. All this bad news is getting me down a bit (in a normal rather than a depressive way). It does make you realise how well we’ve done with just a lack of heat, or too much of it, over the period. There seems so many people to support, so many who need cheering.

Deathly impact

The Christmas decorations have once more been taken down. We usually wait until the 12^th day, the 6^th of January. However, this year they’ve come down early. Somehow any cheer they brought sounded hollow in view of the news of Dave’s death.

It’s surprising how hard it’s hit. We’ve never known him that well, despite the fact we’ve been neighbours over 10 years. On the other hand we’ve never not got on with him either. He was quiet a quiet man. When the Fox had his stroke a few years ago, Dave was the first to turn up & offer me a lift to the hospital or any other chauffeuring I might need. I was outside waiting for a friend to come to take me to the hospital at the time – the ambulance had not been able to cope with taking a wheelchair in!

We seem to have seen so many films/TV dramas about old age & death, heard so many radio programmes on the theme, over the festive period. We are aware that the Fox hits his 65^th this year & so becomes an Old Age Pensioner – wow, that makes him sound ancient. Neither of us is in the best of health & are steadily concluding we’d best get on with enjoying ourselves now before it’s too late. So we’re turning over holidays in our mind & hope to get to the travel agents to collect some brochures later today.

Even more fortunate

Our sense that we’ve been lucky over this festive time has increased as we’ve heard more of others’ experiences. I’ve already told you of two deaths at this time this year. We have now heard of two more.

On Tuesday we ventured to the golf club & bumped into the friend to whom we’d given all those logs from our garden. He was a bit upset. His golfing partner for 40 years had just died. He was so pleased to be given some good news as I told him that our mutual friend, PD, had been told he was now in remission. The lymphoma he’d been treated for most of last year has gone. He’s still to go for regular screening as it may appear again, but the immediate danger is over.

Come News Year’s Eve, we heard a vehicle outside just before the gongs went. We didn’t bother to get up to look who it was. The next morning, we discovered it was an ambulance. Our neighbour Dave, who had so many stays in Blackpool hospital a while a go, had died. He apparently collapsed in front of his wife.

So that’s another couple of deaths. The last one affects us the most. His funeral we expect to attend. We wait to hear when it will be.

All this death makes us realise that we might as well make the most of our time & enjoy it. Some of these deaths were people only in their 60s, as are we. With this in mind, we’ve been reviewing our holiday plans & contemplating being more extravagant than we had been thinking. 2015 is going to be a big year for us. The Fox will be 65 in the spring – officially an old codger. Then in the summer we will be celebrating our Ruby (40^th) Wedding Anniversary. So celebration should be the theme for 2015 & really living life while we still can.

We're starting by just appreciating the new feeling of just being pleasantly warm now the central heating is fully repaired. That's joy in itself.