Still here

For anyone that occasionally reads this, I am still here,I will backtrack and in-fill the gaps but my hiatus has been due in effect to a pretty disastrous Christmas and not the the best start to the year. Husband Jon was so so so so ill for over a month with a chest infection which became bronchitis. Five lots of antibiotic, steroids, inhalers, chest x-rays and finally a combination antibiotic that made him better. On top of which he had a fevers, colds, gastroenteritis... It was *horrible* and had me very very worried about him and very much at sea. This came on top of my having yet another dose of tonsilitis and, very sadly, having my Uncle admitted to hospital with pneumonia on Christmas eve and being told he probably wouldn't make it through the night. We edged through Christmas, Jon got worse, George went to stay with Sharon for a couple of days to give us a rest, then New Year Eve arrived and brought me another bout of tonsil doom - this time a really chronic one with such pain I was in bed before ten - my only nod to the change of year being when Jon and George came up with drinks (baileys for us, milk for George) and put the countdown on and we all sat up in bed and watched the fireworks. New Years Day and another call from the hospital like Christmas Eve, probably not going to make it, sorry. More days ebbed past, I lost my voice from the tonsilitis and couldn't even ring the hospital for updates anymore. A week went by and I spoke to the consultant, the news for my Uncle was very grave, as despite having survived the pneumonia his health and mind were failing and he could no longer swallow. I was told there was no more they could do for him and asked permission to remove his feeding tube, the weekend passed and they removed it on the Monday, I went to my first meditation class that afternoon, my one resolution being to try and gain some inner peace this year. It helped me feel calmer than I had in weeks, and I'm thankful it did. That night my Uncle passed away, drifting softly into sleep. Delivered from having to be moved to a palliative care hospice and allowed to deteriorate, he died peacefully at 4am. Since then there's been sadness, but also that path of practicality that you have to tread after a death. Paperwork, phone calls, solicitors, bank; In the midst of which I had a birthday, visited my brother for the first time in almost four years and had some doughnuts from krispy kreme. The funeral is a week tomorrow and we leave for Winchester on the Thursday, staying in a little cottage in nearby Twyford. I hope all goes as smoothly as possible and that with the beginning of February we can start 2014 properly.