Sad and Happy times

Life has been pretty hectic lately.

We went away to Leicestershire for the weekend of 8/9/10 April. The Saturday was our spring get together of our John Denver club. It has been great that it has often been held in Leicester as we were able to combine it with a visit to my mother-in-law who was in a care home in nearby Loughborough, my husband’s home town. On the Sunday we took a picnic to Bradgate Park, a local beauty spot. It is a large area of deerpark that once belong to Bradgate House, the childhood home of Lady Jane Grey. We used to visit there a lot when we stayed with Mum-in-law but hadn’t been there since she gave up her house to live in sheltered accomodation in 2000.

In the afternoon we went to visit Mum-in-Law. She moved to a care home about five years ago and, sadly hasn’t recognised us for several years.

The following Wednesday we had a call from the care home to say she was ill and had been taken to hospital. It turned out to be just a stomach infection and she was back at the home the next day. We thought all was well until we had another call the following week to say she had suddenly gone into a coma. We raced up the next day to find that she was not expected to live more than a day or so. Our two neices, John’s late sister’s children were at her bedside. Their mother died when they were children and Gran had helped to bring them up, in fact they left home in their teenage years and went to live with her.

We were only able to stay one night, we had to put up at a Travelodge and money is very short, but John got to say ‘Goodbye’ to her. She died on the Saturday, the day before her husband’s birthday which fell on Easter Sunday this year. It is very odd because her daughter was born Easter Sunday on a different date. It was like she chose her time to go.

We are all going up next Wednesday for the funeral. Our younger neice’s boyfriend is letting us use his house for two days.

On a happier note Friday was Cat’s birthday and she went to her friend’s in Cardiff to celebrate. Funnily enough the whole town seemed to be celebrating with her!

We are without TV at the moment as we were still using analogue, but that was switched off just over a week ago and we can’t get the new satelite dish signal to connect to the TV, It’s probably not strong enough because of all of the trees. I’m quite enjoying the peace and quiet and, of course I can watch anything special on the catch up on the computer. I can also watch BBC1 live on the computer now so I didn’t miss the Royal Wedding! That was the one thing I was worried about. What a beautiful day that was except I was sad when Prince Charles and Camilla came in. It should have been Diana, but perhaps she was watching from above.

All in all it’s been a very busy and emotional time and it’s not over yet. We’ve decided to play ‘Greensleeves’ at the funeral as it was Gran’s favourite song, then ‘We’ll Meet Again’ by Vera Lynn at the end. She married her husband six weeks before World War 11 and then didn’t see him for five and a half years. He died 14 years later. She lost her daughter in 1979 and her mother died in the 1919 influenza epidemic when she was only 5. She once said to me, ‘Everyone dies on me.’ Not quite true as she leaves a son, 5 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.