End of April 2011 London
BLOG 61 Coping
It’s nearly May already and its ages since I’ve received an attachment with images of progress on the villa. Has there been much progress? What is L playing at? – very little I fear.
On the home front OH is making a slow but steady recovery. He’s using his walker to get around and is also using the new banisters, holding both sides, to go up and downstairs. The carers come and go – I hardly ever see the same face twice – very disconcerting for poor OH. If I’m not home, they let themselves in via a special key coded system outside the front door. Today, after I get home from work, I read the carer’s report: a new person, K, whose signature I can’t decipher but she leaves a little drawing with her report. Nice. Who is she? OH says cryptically that she “knows me”. Turns out she’s one of my ex students. Having left college, she’s not doing art as a career (no great surprise) but has signed up to a Carers Agency for the NHS. She was a somewhat ‘ditsy’ student in my classes, invariably late, never doing set homework, giggling uncontrollably with her friend Elizabeth. Once the two turned up to class dressed as fairies complete with pink tutu dresses and wings attached to their shoulders (this is not so unusual considering they were both teenagers and art students). They still caused quite a stir – especially with the boys – I’m glad there was no inspection that day!
However, I had an ace up my sleeve in regard to discipline. Her mother is the receptionist at my dentist, and if K became too disruptive in class, I would casually mention that I have an upcoming appointment with the dentist. It always had a miraculous effect. Now here she was in my own home, caring for my OH. What next! OH though, said she was ‘lovely’ and ‘good fun’, so that’s fine . . . I guess. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can say goodbye to carers all together. OH tires quickly and he can’t concentrate for long, but with time, I’m hopeful that he’ll get back to his old self. I say this to him, and he says “less emphasis on the old”. He hasn’t lost his sense of humour.
On a weekly basis, I email L at Infinity saying how we’re building up toward our trip to Turkey to stay in our new villa – how much OH is looking forward to it. I don’t mention that OH is occupied day-by-day, minute-by-minute, coping with life in the present, not the future. But for me: yes, I’m coping with day-to-day life – rushing to work in the morning after making sure OH has what he needs to hand, coping with students and college matters during the day and rushing home to cook for us, and look after OH at night. But beyond that, I’m not living in the present. I’m dreaming of the future – our dream villa in the Sun.
Dreaming – and worrying.
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. . . to be continued . . .usually posted on Thursday
