Sad news...............

Today was a bit of a flat day despite Chris's birthday. My Mum phoned to wish Chris Happy Birthday, but afterwards she told me that her Sister, Aunty Doreen, had had a severe stroke on Tuesday night........she was found by her gardener yesterday, who saw her through the door...............she was lying in the hallway with the telephone.............so had obviously tried to call for help.....

The stroke is severe...it happened in the left part of her brain and so it effects the right side of her body...............today when Mum called the hospital they said they hadn't been able to wake her yet.........so she's unsconscious.......

They have said that people with a stroke this severe often don't recover and we should expect the worst.

It all left me in a very melancholy mood.......I sat and looked through all my old photographs........remembered how Doreen and I used to write to ecah other and how she always encouraged me to read as a child.........she bought me 'Swallows and Amazons' which I still have, and my gold butterfly bookmark. I spent my 18th birthday with Doreen and her husband John and Doreen let my ex stay with them while he was attending conferences in London............

My Mums youngest sister died someties around 1988 from cancer.......and Doreen is her oldest sister......their other sister Pat is in poor health too...............

I guess its like facing the fact that my parents are getting older too.......that I'm getting so much older.....and with Chris becoming a teen today too its about how fast life is going.............much MUCH too fast................I only have one Grandparent still alive now............

Anyway its been a bit of a mixed bag today...happy that my Son is healthy and strong and happily becominga teenager................sad because we may soon say goodbye to another family member..................

And thats the strangest thing of all I guess......when you emigrate and you don't see family very often...if at all......you picture them as you saw them last.......you forget they have aged and changed so much................

Anyway, I am thinking of my cousins Anne and Philip....I can't imagine what they are going through...their Dad died justa few years ago and now they are losing their Mum......