Family News

Nigel's grandmother's funeral is on Tuesday and she had asked that children do not attend. She was of the old school that believed that a funeral was not a place for children, and I must say that I agree with her. My mother is off to Spain on Tuesday evening but she will help me to look after Wendy in the morning.



Wendy was named after Nigel's mother who died of breast cancer. His grandmother took him in after that, so there was a close bond, and of course Nigel is very sad. His family don't really function much as a family as we understand it, so thank God he has his own family now in Caelyn and Wendy. Nigel is much loved in our extended family too, and I hope it is a comfort to him at this sad time. I couldn't wish for a better son-in-law. Now that the UK new Academic year has started, he is back in College, working hard to get a good qualification. Best of luck, Nigel. You will do well because you work so hard at it.



Josie, Michelle, Caelyn, Nigel and Wendy have all got a nasty 'flu-like virus and it has hit them hard. My mother has heart and chest problems so viruses are bad news for her. Michelle has had asthma since moving to England and she usually ends up in the William Harvey Hospital for a few hours every year. She has a couple of hours on their nebulising machines, then gets sent home with medication. She works with people with Downs Syndrome and viruses aren't good news there either, as many of them have congenital heart problems. Caelyn is still feverish, Nigel is getting over it as it Wendy, who is still a bit grumpy with it. I, thank God, have escaped it so far. I have other problems though. On top of my ME or chronic Brucellosis, I am anaemic. I am on treatment for it, but get very breathless, have daily headaches and a racing heartbeat, a sore mouth and even more weariness that usual.



Michelle recently had another NVQ assessment and the assessor was very pleased with her. She has nearly finished her NVQ2 and is already thinking she wants to get her NVQ3 and possibly the NVQ Assessor qualification. There is a heck of a lot of work involved, but Michelle has never been scared of hard work. She has the brains, the talent and the willpower, and with all that going for her, she could achieve anything she wanted. She will go far.





Sean is in Greece this weekend. I will see him on Wednesday and we willl buy tickets to go to visit friends in Edinburgh next weekend. Sean is very considerate of my mobility and health problems and has said we will hire a mobility scooter in Edinburgh. He has realised that my energy runs out so fast that if they ask me to walk, I will hold everyone up and stop them enjoying themselves. It embarrasses me too. I will have to talk to Caelyn about looking after the dog and to Michelle about looking after the cats.



Here are a couple of my recent drawings. The one with all three girls in was a cut-and-paste job because I haven't got one single decent photo of them all together. They object to this collage, but there isn't too much choice as they don't/won't pose together for a decent shot.



A Story with Sean



Brushing Richard's hair