Day 19 – time at home counting my blessings

At last things are looking up.  Yesterday hubby was much better, he even managed to walk with me to the day room, the first day since he was admitted we didn’t use the wheelchair!!  The medics are pleased with his progress, it feels like we are moving closer to actually fixing his heart.

I have taken a day off visiting and come home to the hill, the sun is shining and the trees are all in bud.  It is a useful reminder that summer is approaching and that we shall spend the warm days together, as he makes his recovery.

When life is tough, and it has been this past few months, there are many worries. I have spend nights lying awake thinking thoughts and there have been difficult decisions to be made. Amid this chaos there are unexpected bits of wonder. One thing that will stay with me forever will be the kindest shown to us in so many different ways.  People reaching out with open arms and hearts to try to do their bit to make things better.  Alongside the gentle caring of the hospital staff, have been the family and friends, who quite literally have wrapped us up and taken care of me.  It is simply amazing.

Homes that have been opened to me, with a bed to sleep in, closer to the hospital, and so much more. The company of people who know you well,  and who really want to help. I have been cooked for, taken out for meals, laundry done, they have driven me to where I need to be,  I have been completely taken care of, I shall remember it forever.
Friends and family who have come along to visit, bringing a taste of normal life with them together with thoughtful gifts and warm love.  Everyone has to make a huge effort, no one lives close by to this city hospital, and yet they have come, and it has meant the world to both of us, to know how much people care.
It is when things are difficult that you need your tribe around you.  I had thought moving away would mean I had lost my connections with my tribe, but it seems not.  People who have stayed in your life for decades are, it seems, truly friends for life.  I am so grateful to them all.  It is making me think about the times we have had people living in our home over the years, always with good heart we have delighted in helping. It is only now I can understand a bit of how it feels to make someone else’s house your home, albeit briefly.
We are blessed with the best family and friends in the world.  Those that understand the issues we are facing are helping in so many ways.  I know I am hard to help, a life of having to be independent, does not make me one who easily ask for, or accepts help.  It fact my default position is to decline, saying everything is ok, even when it isn’t.  It is then that those who know me are finding other ways to get help to me, and I am in awe of this.  Thank you doesn’t come close, I hope they all know how much their support means.
 Today will be spent in the Welsh sunshine, on my own.  I will take a walk by the sea, but not at our favourite beach. I am saving that one until we can walk again together, hand in hand in the late summer sunshine.  With luck the best is yet to be.

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