Skip to main content

a helluva year

Last night I felt like dancing around Wizard of Oz style, as the munchkins did to celebrate the death of the Wicked Witch of the East.  Part of me still does.  It is possibly the best news I've ever heard. 
 
Charlotte received the results following a scan she had last week that confirmed the alien's demise and departure.  It was all clear.  Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!
 
She's cleared off.  Hopefully forever.  Charlotte can breathe a deep (and mindful) sigh of relief, and focus on moving forward.  2012 has been a helluva year.  We will make 2013 even bigger. 
 
So, the witch has gone.  She must now be kept at bay.  And Charlotte is well equipped to do that.  Her fridge is the home of anti cancer superfoods (of which I was the grateful recipient with yet more delicious home cooking).  Charlotte is, unsurprisingly, paying greater attention than ever, to what she puts into her body. 
 
Just like the Munchkins, who don't fully understand how Dorothy arrived from Kansas, we won't ever really comprehend the alien's arrival, or exit.  It's not important.  We need only celebrate the journey we've been on, alongside Charlotte - the true hero. 
 
Unlike the Oz city officials, we cannot be wholly sure that this dangerous intruder is undeniably and reliably dead.  For the time being, she has retreated.  There is an ocean between relief and contempt.  This witch demands respect.  She has challenged much we might previously have taken for granted.  But armed with humility we battle on.
 
In the words of Peter Andre - I'm not gonna lie, it's been a tough year.  It's been a helluva year.  Last night Charlotte acknowledged the part played very inexpertly by those of us who have been watching and waiting, rooting for her every step of the way.  We have had no option but to place our faith in the miracle of modern medicine, and trust the arduous process. 
 
10 months ago my world was brutally shaken as the terrible and terrifying 'Big C' turned up in my life making an unwelcome appearance having callously invaded the temple like body of my best friend.  My faith has been pushed to its limits, and restored in excess.  Miracles do happen. 
 
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la.  It can be a truly merry Christmas.  And before then, a very happy birthday.  Life can return to some semblance of normality.  Charlotte returned to school and has almost completed Michaelmas term.  She is back on her bike, and yesterday made it out for her first run since the massive surgery she underwent in July.  She plans to enter a event in the first weekend of the holidays.     
 
Blue skies ahead - Charlotte riding in Yorkshire at half term
 
Big smiles after a smashing haircut in early October
 
Prize winning - London Womens Cycle Racing Awards 2012
 
I'm awestruck.  I really am.  My fundraising does not adequately reflect my deep gratitude to each and every professional whose brilliant care has taken the best possible care of my bestest friend.  My Double Challenge fundraiser total stands at over £2,700.  My Virgin MoneyGiving site remains open... 
 
 
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Table. Apple. Penny.

Whilst there were several places I might have been that morning, I wouldn't have been anywhere else.  The practitioner from the Memory Service arrived promptly.  I liked her instantly.    Mum was nervous.  I think I was a little, too.  It's been a difficult year.   "It's Friday, it's the fourteenth of December and I'm at home..."   No problems there.  CAMCOG, or the Cambridge Cognitive Examination is a thorough assessment tool used to assess the extent of extent of dementia, and to assess the level of cognitive impairment.  The standardised  measure assesses orientation, language, memory, praxis, attention, abstract thinking, perception and calculation.    "Table.  Apple.  Penny."   Three everyday items that were introduced at one point, and then referred to again later on.  Again, Mum was able to recall each.      I am reminded that the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Glass half full? Glass half empty? Or perhaps the glass is broken

I am, constitutionally, a glass half empty gal.  I will always first acknowledge what I don't have, what I have lost, and what it is that I am seeking.  I tend to overlook my strengths, concentrating only on those bits of me that are underdeveloped or weak.  I refer to myself as a realist, but in doing so compliment myself and insult those who genuinely are simply realistic.  My modus operandi is to identify what's not working and acknowledge this before seeing more clearly what functions perfectly well.  This has its place: I edit others' written work pretty well.  My fastidious attention to detail serves me, and the author.  Accuracy counts, for me and I have an excellent memory.  I can remember a great many of my sessions with clients verbatim.  Even this asset is something I can, and do, diminish the true value of, by concentrating on 'I should have said...' or 'why didn't....  occur to me during the session?' Earlier this we...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joan Miro: Emotional Art

"Painting and poetry are like love; an exchange of blood, a passionate embrace, without restraint, without defence.  The picture is born of an overflow of emotions and feelings." Miro, The Farm 'La Masia' (1921-22) I learnt a great deal about Miro on a recent visit to the Tate.  I learnt a great deal about a lot more too. Miro wanted to discover the sources of human feeling.  He described his method of creating poetry by way of painting, using a vocabulary of signs and symbols, metaphors and dream images to express definite themes he believed to be fundamental to human existence.  The exhibition displays his sense of humor and lively wit.  His chief concern was a social one; he wanted to get close to the great masses of humanity, and he was convinced that art can only truly appeal when it resonates with roots of lived experience.  "Wherever you are, you find the sun, a blade of grass, the spirals of the dragonfly.  Courage cons...
Post a Comment
Read more