The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

silvasava

Monna - huge hugs as I can't give you any practical help. Dreadful shock for you all
Nursemaggie - my DGD was also 23 yesterday!
Can empathise with the realisation that energy levels are not what they were. DH seems to have spent most of the winter reading or watching the box. He seems to only be capable of doing one thing and that's it. I'm hoping he will improve when the weather improves!

Hard_Up_Hester

Hugs Monna, I know the feeling, my heart sinks sometimes when I asked to step in.

maryb

Monna, so sorry you felt so overwhelmed. Go easy on yourself, anyone would be daunted by that combination

FurryBeastOz

Monna sending ((hugs)). Glad you are not being left to deal with everything. A horrible shock.

Mar I really hope we don't get the arctic blast. I'm in 'spring' mode.

Softstuff

*hugs*Monna. I've a few kms less than you on the clock and there's no way I'd be able to step into the fray with that. It was fairly nerve wracking looki6after me friends 2 teenage daughter and their dogs for an evening, and they're all pretty self sufficient (even the dogs...).

Knit_Witch

monnagran wrote: »

Mar. your opening sentence reminds me of the old joke about the young woman soaking in the bath when there is a knock on the door and a voice saying, "Can I come in? I'm the blind man". Thinking that she was quite safe she invited him in. It wasn't until he came in, leant over the bath and asked if she was thinking of Roman or Venetian that she realised her mistake.

Sorry I've not been around much. It has been a manic couple of days. It is half term here so we have DGS for the week. DIL took pickle up to her parents for the weekend as we haven't seen them since Christmas. You may remember that last summer DIL's mother had a twinge in her back that turned out to be a tumour round her spine, and that was the secondary, She also had Myeloma. Anyway, DIL came back yesterday evening saying how much better her mother seemed, that she could get from her wheel chair into the car now and was waiting for her stem cell treatment soon.
In the early hours we had a phone call to say that she was being rushed into hospital, DIL booked the first ferry she could get on which didn't run because a 500 lb bomb had been dredged up in the sea off Portsmouth. She finally managed to get on a ferry as a foot passenger going to Southampton and 5 minutes into the journey had a call from her father to say that her mother had died.
Obviously we are all in a state of shock. We haven't told the children yet so if DS2 goes up to be with his wife, which he wants to do, I will be looking after an autistic teenager, a pre-school DGD, an ancient, on her last legs, huge dog and a lively, naughty, incontinent puppy.
I feel awful being so sorry for myself, my problems are miniscule in comparison. But I have to say that DS2 has just come in to say that they have decided that he will stay here and I am sitting in my room weeping with relief.

Sorry for the self-pitying moaning. A couple of years ago I would have stepped into the breach without a second thought and coped with one hand tied behind my back, but suddenly I feel very old and frail and I don't like myself very much.

Life has this sneaky habit of pulling the rug out from under you when you least expect it, doesn't it?

I do apologise to those of you with REAL problems.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Thank you for listening.

x

Huge hugs to your DIL and DS (and DGKs and you of course!) Monna, oh and this IS a real problem in the days when the furthest you went was 2 streets away when you wed and there was lots of family around when carpy stuff like this happens you could count on help - now people have to drop everything and go hundreds of miles away to sick/dying/dead family members and it all adds to the stress (we suddenly had to get our dogs into kennels, drive 200 miles and arrived 24 hours before my Mam died with me holding her hand)

take a deep breath and know that you are loved and we are with you and yours all the way.

Knit_Witch

nursemaggie wrote: »

Monna a big hug from me and no it is not worse trouble. It is a big responsibility when you are getting older to have complete charge. I don't feel I can manage, especially when today's parents still think their babies are made of the most delicate glass when they are 3 and half.

I knew what was coming when you said how well she was. It is surprising how many people have their best day just before they die. When I called my brother and our minister neither of them would believe me because they had both been in the afternoon. It's so much better for them that way to have chance to have a good day with relatives. It was Saturday so we had all been. Ill remember you all in my prayers.

Floss his course is online. The rest he does is he reads the Japanese papers, not the heavies, and watches Japanese TV. He has a few friends who are also doing it but he is the farthest ahead. I missed the r out there funny seeing as he is back to being a string bean. This morning he said he had made sense of his first Japanese song.

knitwitch I suppose you used one of those conversions I just turned my tape measure over.

Actually I used my Poppy Appeal 8" or 20 cm ruler :rotfl:

Hmm NM has your son tried some of the Japanese cartoon films - I enjoy/ed Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and you can have them in Japanese, Japanese with English subtitles or English (guess which I went for )

mcculloch29

ivyleaf wrote: »

How nice Mcculloch - When you said Flora Sheddon I hadn't realised it was Flora from bake Off. She was a sweetie. I'm glad you're so pleased with it. Do you also sometimes got sent totally inappropriate things to try? I take it things to review are sent entirely at random?

nursemaggie Thinking of you.

mar Hope you're less knackered now!

Ivyleaf, no, not random. We are given a list of items to choose from, generally based on what we have reviewed previously. It used to be five items at a time, but that has been relaxed a little.
Not everything is wow, exciting. At the moment I have:

A biography about five a side football (I have reviewed sports books)
A computer exam study guide. (I review a lot of exam guides but not computing exams)
A 'Dummies' guide to iPads (I reviewed an iPhone and Windows 10 guide as I use both but I don't have an iPad).
A novel which is quite tempting if I didn't have other books to review.

A pack of 20 plastic pouches for posting items. Could prove useful but I asked for some in another size already.

Four Mothers' Day Cards (My mother died in 1991 and my grandchildren buy their own for their Mum).

Just to add, sometimes things aren't as expected, so can be inappropriate in that respect. I've been sent stuff made in the wrong size a good few times.

mcculloch29

Something that made me very sad... someone I had lost touch with but still thought of fondly has taken their own life, following a diagnosis of terminal cancer. His wife discovered him on her return from church on Sunday. They have one adult daughter.

On the up side, another friend with terminal cancer is battling on in a local hospice.
He really is raging against the dying of the light with some style.

burtha

Hugs Monna,

Sorry not posted much either , kids half term , so teenagers plus grandchild , have managed to get a whole 7 days off ,But feel like I am walking in thick fog and don't know why ...
Hope your all ready to push again , grandchild number 2 due September ... so fingers crossed everything is straight forward ..

Softstuff glad the mri was ok, must admit they don't bother me , the song choice in the first one I had , had me in fits of giggles ... carnt remember who it's by but the lyrics are something on the lines off " if all I have to do today is .... loosing my mind " ... quite funny considering it was a brain scan ... , maybe explains a lot ...

Spent the day inside today ,dd had 2 friends for a sleep over last night , must admit there were great , but need to go out somewhere tomorrow ,whatever the weather

Nm love the fact your son still thinks you carnt lift ...

X