A very different year this year so far!

It has been a strange start to the year so far, after a heavy drinking session on New Year's Eve, we managed not to have terrible hangovers and I spent New Year's Day baking bread and cake.  Three months in and some not so nice things have happened.  In the grand scheme of things we are a very fortunate family.  We have three wonderful children all of whom are bright, active and caring.  We have a wonderful daughter-in-law and a beautiful grandson, who we don't see as much of as we would like.  We have had many really good years and at the end of each year when I look back over what we have done, what we have achieved and how happy, in general, we have been I always reflect on how lucky we are and hope that the next year, without being greedy, is just as good.

At Christmas Mum told us that her breast cancer had returned and that she had a date for a mastectomy operation followed in all probability by chemotherapy treatment.  Her operation was booked for 19th January.  On the 16th she suffered a minor stroke which, although it was frightening at the time, hasn't left her with extensive damage but did mean that she was unable to have the operation.  It took her many weeks to recover from the stroke and now has a new date for the operation.  At least this time she hasn't kept it to herself and will not be quite as stressed as last time (which could have contributed to the stroke).

At the end of the first week in January our cat, Smudge, died.  She was nearly 18 years old and she just gradually faded away.  I sat with her until she died, very peacefully.  We had her cremated and collected her ashes to scatter around the silver birch in the garden.

At the end of February, not long after we returned from our skiing trip, our other adult cat, Poppy, suffered a heart attack and died.  I found her in the outside cupboard where she normally slept at night.  Poppy was about 13 and, although she was overweight, it wasn't expected and I was quite shocked when I found her.  Her ashes will be scattered with Smudge's.

On March 7th Brian's nan died.  She had been out with the family the day before and we had dropped her off at home in the early evening.  Apart from some breathlessness she seemed as normal but she had breathing difficulties in the early hours of the morning and called for help.  She died later the same morning at the hospital.

Brian was told that he may lose his franchise due to cutbacks.  We don't yet know whether this will happen but he is having to start to face the idea that he might have to do something else.  I hope that he can be open minded and look at all possibilities otherwise he may just shut down.  My job seems to be safe (although some members of my department will lose their jobs this year) and I may need to increase my hours if we feel that we need the extra money.

On the positive side, Ben has been offered places at all the universities he applied to and now needs to gt the required grades.  Beccy has started to coach the younger girls in football at school.   She is being given the responsibility of running the coaching sessions and may either play or referee school matches.  She is working one hour a day, four days a week taking over from Mum while she is unwell.  It gives her extra pocket money and a sense of responsibility.  Ben continues to earn his money coaching at the tennis club and is seeing an increase in the amount of coaching he is able to do.  They both still fully commit themselves to their sports both as players and as coaches, umpires and referees.  They are also both kept busy by scouting and cadet activities.  Dan and Helen still seem to be doing well at their respective jobs and are looking into buying the lease for the shop next door to them so that Helen can use it for her business.  Alexander is developing brilliantly.  He says quite a lot and is becoming understandable at times.   He picks things up very quickly as well.  Last week when we were at a restaurant having a meal he sat on my lap and we were playing magic tricks.  I held and shook a napkin and he bent down to hide so that when I took the napkin away he had disappeared.  Then, when I held the napkin up again he sat up so that he was there when I removed it again.  He learnt that trick after one go!  Not bad for a two year old!  We are still a very fortunate family.