Well, been a long time, readers!
I checked back on past entries and saw that March was my last one and that was a survey. It’s about that time that the world starting turning upside down for us.
I had a close cousin , who was one year older than me. His dad, my uncle, was in the Army in Germany and I spent a few holidays with them, and then some weekends when I was posted over there with the RAF. They were almost like a second family to me. Anyway, I last saw this cousin, early February. He’d been ill for some time and had been diagnosed with cancer of the throat. It had also metastasised into his lungs. I was shocked to see how he had lost so much weight. I remember telling Dawn when I got home that he wouldn’t see christmas. Well, he never made the end of March. Just managed past his birthday on the 23rd, then had a coughing fit one night, veins in his throat burst and he bled out on his bathroom floor.
A week later we had a call from Yorkshire Police. Kevin, Dawn’s oldest brother, had been murdered in February in Wakefield. We had only seen him a couple of times since we’d been married. He pretty much kept away from the family. He’d had a hard upbringing and got the worst of their dad’s temper , which left him with some mental health problems. Basically he had been beaten up by a couple of homeless people he had befriended, and they’d killed him then left his flat. He was found next day by the carers that came in every day.
After several months of court procedures they were found guilty of murder and given 18 to life. Apparently the bloke was known to the police and had a history of violent behaviour. The liaison officers doubted if he would be able to keep his nose clean inside and would be in for some time to come.
In between that news and the final decision, my mum passed away. May 12th, a monday. She’d been poorly for a while. Her diabetes had been all over the place and she was a bugger for not taking the meds properly. She was also having falls regularly, like 4 in three weeks. Well, one week she caught a chest infection. Managed to get her to the doctor, but the antibiotics she was having wasn’t clearing it. One friday night she was so short of breath we called out the emergency doctor who wanted her to go to hospital but the stubborn woman wouldn’t ! Anyway, I went round again on the saturday several times, checked her blood pressure and her blood sugar levels both of which were low. I insisted we got her into hospital and called an ambulance. I was worried. A Rapid Response Paramedic arrived first, did all the vital signs and total agreed with me that she needed to be in hospital. So this time she agreed. I was in my car so left the house first, only to be overtaken by the ambulance with its lights flashing. I was worried for my mum and also for Dawn who had travelled with her. We got to ER and apparently her blood pressure had dropped alarmingly which is the reason for the blues and twos. They carried out a lot of tests over the next few hours. We left about 1 AM to try and get some sleep. We went back to visit her the next day and she had been moved up to the cardiac ward. The staff there were fantastic, and I actually knew the Deputy Sister having worked with her previously. Mum was on oxygen as her saturation levels kept dropping without it (the chest infection), she was also on medication to keep her blood pressure stable. Trouble with that was it increased her heart rate. I had a quiet word with the nurse in charge of Mum’s care and she confirmed what I already knew. Mum was in a mess and really poorly. The doc came to see her while we had nipped out for a drink and stated he was a bit happier with her, seemingly to be more stable. So we left her side about 9PM which is an hour longer than we should have been. We got a call at 6 AM next morning from the hospital saying they think we should get there ASAP. We got there as quick as we could, in about 20 minutes. We’d missed her by about 10 minutes. She’d quietly passed away and was still warm when we went in to say goodbye. Because of her heart rate, basically it had given up.
So that was a really shitty first half of the year.
Being an only child obviously everything was to come to me, apart from £5k for each of the grandkids. Mum’s will was easy to find as she’d always told me where to find it. Everyone was contacted, banks, doctors, councils, utility companies. They all wanted death certificates as expected, but banks also needed “proof of probate”. To get this I had to contact another government department, and for this privilege they charged me over £200! I was bloody fuming. Further to that they dragged their feet so much, it took nearly 3 months before I could close her bank accounts and settle her estate. Then it took us a while to actually sell the house before we could release the money , sort the kids out with theirs and actually get back to some semblance of normality.
Needless to say, this Christmas has been a really low key affair, and not as good as usual, though we’ve tried to make it as normal for our grandkids.
Plans have been made for the money we’ve got and it has worked out pretty good, though bitter sweet in the execution of it. We bought a static caravan down in Cornwall. This will enable us to have regular holidays, which have been in short supply recently, especially with the dogs. We can take them away with us now. We can also see Vicki, our daughter, more often as she lives there permanently. And bonus, Paula, Andrew and the grandkids can have holidays there too. All good.
I bought myself a new motorbike, a Triumph Thunderbird Storm. The Tiger was, and still is, a great bike, but old age comes with some baggage, and years of riding motorbikes has brought on arthritis in my knees. Coupled with a shorter left leg ( from my accident in ’94) meant I was struggling to get on the Tiger which is a tall “adventure-style” bike. So I have returned to my custom bike “roots” and got a bike with a lower seat height which is a lot easier to get on and off. It’s also a LOT better than the America I had before the Tiger. Lots more oomph, handle better and is more comfortable.
A new kitchen is making its arrival starting on January 5th, 2016, followed by a new en-suite in March. That will still leave us with a chunk of money, some of which I hope to put in my pension pot so I can retire in 3 years when I’m 60.
I can say that work is still going well, still enjoying it, despite all the miles I drive. (56,000 so far, in 2 years). The team are great and I’m being given more responsibility within it, so all is good there.
So all-in-all it was a year of 2 halves. Of course the second half, despite clearing a lot of debts and giving us more peace of mind has been coupled with serious grieving for all the family. This has been a bit of a bummer of a year and one which I shan’t rush to keep memories from. I guess what doesn’t kill ya, makes ya stronger, so here’s to 2016. Bring it on!
Hugz
RNBiker
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