WOYWW 449

Yet again, yet again… Still no change on Shoshi’s desk! Still, we have been up to our eyes in other stuff to do, and art has to take a back seat for now.

We are making progress with arrangements following Mum’s death. We are having the memorial service for her on 18th Jan. and I have now completed designing the order of service booklet, which is now with the printers. I am very pleased with how it turned out – not only have a added lots of lovely photos, but I have put in little pictures in the various bits of white space, of things that Mum loved – birds, spring lambs, cherry blossom. It looks really pretty!

My hubby and I have worked out approximately how many people will attend, and he’s booked the caterers for afterwards. As we did with Dad, we will have a cream tea at the back of the church after the service.

I am in the process of compiling a CD of her favourite pieces of music, some of which will be played during the service, and some before, and others afterwards while we are having the refreshments. I have also been practising my singing. I managed to source a transposed version of “I know that my Redeemer liveth” in D major rather than E major, because I find those top G-sharps a pretty tall order these days! I have had a practice session with the organist and it went well.

My hubby has made use of his enforced immobility and has been making good progress by phone and email, dealing with the solicitor and sorting paperwork to do with Mum’s affairs, while I have been cooking and looking after him and trying to keep on top of everything I’ve got to do!

I am starting to get replies to all the letters I sent out as I worked my way through Mum’s address book, and I have had such lovely letters! Everyone has such nice things to say, and each one has different reminiscences about Mum, and about Dad too, some of which I knew nothing about, and others have revived happy memories. I shall treasure all the letters for ever.

Kitties

The kittens are so enjoying having my hubby in there with them all the time in the flat, and while the weather has been so cold, they have loved cuddling up with him.

An armful of kitties!

Lily squashing her tail. She gets so relaxed that you can lift her tail up and drop it, and it hangs completely limp.

Somehow she managed to worm her way inside my hubby’s bag when it was fastened closed.

He wasn’t best pleased to find that she had chewed the papers that were inside! I told him anything was fair game, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether you try and protect stuff or not – if they want it, they will get it! The stuff we find on the floor in the mornings… We’ve learnt to take a lot of stuff out each night when we go to bed.

Ruby’s favourite position is sleeping on top of her sister. Lily is so laid back that she doesn’t seem to notice.

Health Update

I have got my appointment at the hospital tomorrow, and it can’t come soon enough now. I am sure the surgeon will agree to go ahead and do the operation now. I have been getting more and more problems, and recently Kermit, my stoma, has started retracting periodically, and causing major problems, and it seems that everything in that area is unstable and in a state of flux.

A couple of days ago the stoma nurse phoned me and asked me to come in and see them, because they are now doing an annual review of all their patients to check on the products they use. Apparently if you change what you are using, maybe to another brand, or you stop using a particular product, the GPs aren’t always very good at keeping their records up to date, and the nurse said that mine had a list as long as your arm, most of which I haven’t used for ages! The idea of the annual review is to prevent over-ordering and wastage, which sounds sensible. I just hope they aren’t going to tell me I don’t need this or that, because I do know what I need! Anyway, I told her about our current situation with my hubby being unable to drive me etc., and told her I was due to come in on Thurs. anyway to see the surgeon (it’s in the same department, colorectal outpatients) and she said she’d fit me in before I see him, which saves another trip.

I should know more after Thursday. Hopefully it won’t be too long before my hernia gets fixed. Once we’ve got the memorial service out of the way, there won’t be so much for me to do, and when my hubby has had his next appointment at the fracture clinic towards the end of the month we should know more, and how much longer he’s likely to be in plaster, and then once I’ve had my operation things should at last start to settle down again. I just hope they don’t keep me waiting too long.