Missing you

MARIE: It’s been ages since we’ve blogged. In a reversal of roles, Jon has been nagging me lately to get started again, and I’ve been meaning to for weeks, honest I have. Things have been busy here, but not so busy I couldn’t have found the time to blog. But I’ve had various frustrations on the volunteer work front, and I guess that drained me more than I realized. Last week, though, I had a few days away to sit quietly and think about my priorities and the balance between what I have to do and what I want to do. Well, one thing I definitely want to do is write this blog, so here (at last) we are again.

 

The previous post listed the many events and visits we had coming up, most of which are now behind us. A highlight was Jon’s 60th birthday, which he celebrated in regal style with several weeks of festivities. We had two weeks of staggered family visits from the UK, a lovely dinner out at a meat temple of Jon’s choice on the birthday itself, and a big party on the day the Danish family came down too.

 

That last event proved perhaps a bridge too far for Jon. He’s not good in crowds any longer – it’s both the sheer amount of sensory input that throws him and simply the speed with which party conversations move and skip from topic to joke to interruption. So although he enjoyed seeing how well we all get on with each other, and also consented to suffer the dual indignities of having birthday songs sung at him while adorned with an enormous medal proclaiming him to be “40ish”, he did spend quite a bit of time resting in his bedroom.

 

Before they came over, I had talked to Jon’s children, sister and first wife about making it a joint project to create a poster for him of all his life. He was 40 when I met him, so that’s hardly a task I could take on alone. They all brought loads of old photos which Jon had great fun looking through, and then together we picked out the high spots and the crossroads of his life, with pictures to match. Embarrasingly, the material is still sitting on my desk waiting to be scanned and organized, but I’ll get to it soon (priorities, right?).

 

The purpose of this This-Is-Your-Life poster is threefold. First and simplest: it’s fun, and who wouldn’t enjoy such a gift? Second, it will help Jon to remember the whos and whens and wheres of his life if his memory should fail him. And third, it will be an aid to any outside nursing or care staff to get to know Jon, which is especially important given the language barrier he lives behind. For as long as I have known him, he’s been impossible to buy gifts for, but I’m confident we hit on a good one here.

 

Later, I must tell you how we are getting on with the local nursing service, why my volunteer work was getting me down, how well Jon is doing after his latest medication adjustments and additions, and what we did on our holidays. Enough for now, though. Talk to you soon.