Liz Life

7 Aug 2018

Ripe Fruit, poem

ripe fruit

spring rains, summer sun
bundled energy, capsuled vitamins
stored in red green and gold packaging
for easy handling and fresh consumption
customer warning : may contain nuts and seeds

My response to this blog post. (Didn't find the template till too late.)

http://tanyamarlow.com/i-am-from-she-loves-sychroblog/

I am from ...

I am from The North, though half way up.
I am from East Coast, though in the West.
I am from a hill though a plains dweller.
I am from a city though it's more county.

I am from pretty blond Anglo Saxon meets handsome dark Celt.
I am from Mum : home baker, listener, creative, intellectual, takes time for us, despite having to leave the house key in the outside toilet for us after school.
I am from Dad : school failure but sports champion to social pioneer and PhD.

I am from traditional standards yet modern thinking.
I am from two languages although both are English.
I am from able yet disabled, a hearing in the world of the deaf.

I am from native born to foreigner and become as a stranger in my own land.
I am from trees all round to people in every direction.
I am from comfortably off to living among the uncomfortable.
I am from waste-not-want-not to living among huge-telly-ers.

I am from fit, active, aware, lend-a-hand, fiercely independent, never-take-anything-stronger-than-an-aspirin but I am sick, dependent on pills, reliant on carers, living off the state.
I am become a walker who can't walk, a musician who can't play, a missionary who can't go out, a worker who can't work, a carer who can't help.
But I can love and care, can imagine and be curious, can hope and dream, can laugh and cry.

I am wholeheartedly alive and in the now.
I am not my past, even though my past is in me.
I am not my parents, even though my parents are in me .
I am not my illness, even though my illness is in me.
I am here.
I am now.
There is no back, only forward.

4 Dec 2017

2017

Happy Christmas 2017

Look what last weekend brought us! Actually, we get some snow most years, about the same as the English East coast.

I went on my travels again in October. This time I had an unseasonably warm two weeks in Corfu and the Aegean with my Mum. I swam in the sea, went on a boat trip to some beautiful islands, used my few words of Greek and learned more, had a haircut in a Greek unisex barbers (cultural experience more cos of a whole bunch of giggling boys one of whom was having his mohican cut off and some fashionable cut or other instead lol), and a Turkish shopping experience being hailed by all the shopkeepers, highly entertaining if pushing the comfort bubble a bit. Next time I shall learn to haggle.

I was able to do all this thanks to being back on Lyme treatment again having been in relapse since having a virus last winter. Joanna got set back by having a fall and damaging her ankle which is recuperating now, and Ruth looked after her so I could still go on holiday, so both are a bit set back for the moment.

On my trip I had a lovely meet up with cousins Ray and Mel, we mustn't leave it so long next time. Thank you both for the amazingly healing acceptance words.

Also had a trip to Derby to meet up with Dad. Beautiful autumnal walk along the river including seeing moorhens fighting (!), grebe fishing and a cormorant hanging itself out to dry.

Back home the picture is very different. We're very short of rain. As you can see from the pic of the autumnal vines the grass is still brown, the second season of growth just didn't happen. The garden is too hard to be able to make holes to put bulbs in. But we did get a cherry tree planted and a helper watered it in for us.

Another highlight earlier in the year was Joanna being able to get out for a little ride. We went as far as the lovely view over the river.

Helper wise we're in a good place this month. One old helper is back after extensive sick leave and we have a lovely new lady too.

Discovering about neurodiversity. Mainly encouraging, reassuring stuff. None of us would ever have got a diagnosis, though arguably it would have been helpful to have understood some things better.

This has been a very good year for me as far as a Facebook support group goes. I highly value the friendship and support of a number of women, mostly in even more tricksy situations than us, all in varying states of health caring for sick offspring 24/7 and sometimes parents too. Just normal women rising to the occasion, struggling some days, coping. My heroes. It was lovely to meet up with a few when I was in the UK, and I value the effort it cost them. [ Actually I don't think they are just normal, not any more certainly fiven how they've set their minds and wills and hearts to the job in hand, and maybe they never were. Not that any of them had planned to spend their lives looking after poorly people, but if they'd been more 'ordinary' maybe they'd have rested more earlier instead of trying to juggle their projects, careers and dreams, whilst caring for their own needies and others' needs and leaving their own requirements to get the sweepings of their energies. Just a thought. Like I said, my heroes.]

We hope you have a very happy Christmas however you celebrate it and all God's blessings for the coming year. We're really hoping that this year one or more of us might be able to get to at least part of a christmas service.

Lots of love from

xxx Liz, Ruth and Joanna xxx

Ginger hard at work with Ruth

Me looking at my new glasses in a selfie

Lili doing what Lili does

Joanna's beautiful ride out

Say no more!

In the garden, all together 😀

4 Dec 2014

Christmas Greeting 2014

Though much is taken

"Though much is taken, much abides.
And though we are not now that strength
Which in old days moved earth and heaven,
That which we are, we are:
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate,
But strong in will, to strive, to seek,
To find and not to yield."

Tennyson.

2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I've been served right for starting last year's letter by being glad of not moving house. A few weeks later the council offered us a ground floor flat and on the 27th of March we moved. We could have done with those boxes after all, doh ! The 3 of us now all have our names on the lease which we hope will give us each security of tenure if any of the others leave.

Taken from the downstairs front door beside our front steps. The neighbours are friendly. The chair is where the grannies sit to chat in the afternoons. Nothing escapes their notice.

There's a convenient olive grove down the road to walk the dog, (with the craziest snails that sit at the top of the post).The harvest has failed this year so no more olives on sale till 2016. I wonder if they'll still have the olive festival ? It's called the Fete de l'Alicoque. I misread it as Alcolique.

Ginger Biscuit, always inquisitive

We've got a bit of garden which will take some work to get in order but it's got roses, lilac, box, lavender, sage, thyme. Mercifully it's wild mint that's gone rampant not grass as J is allergic to the pollens. It smells lovely after the rain and when we walk on it. We're planning a bonfire party for New Year's Eve.

We've down sized from 100m² to 68m² but we've still all got a bedroom each, as well as two sorts of balconies and a sizeable cellar downstairs. Can't grumble, the couple who lived here before us were Polish refugees and brought up their 12 children in this flat ! We've a fair amount of work to do on the place. Until 4 years ago it was heated with parafin heaters which has left a toxic soot on the walls and has not been great for Joanna's already difficult breathing. We've got one bedroom done which we've moved her into for the time being and one nearly done and her breathing has improved a bit. We're trying to get the place adapted and equipped for a maximum of autonomy. We got the new kitchen sink this week but it's 1cm longer than planned so the new dishwasher doesn't slot in it's place. Hmmm, will have to put our thinking caps again.

Balcony, flowers and view of autumn crocuses down in the garden.

We need to get a bath put in too, we're hoping the disability authorities will help. Plus we'd like them to give us our "helper funding" back. We've tried to campaign to get the law made less discriminatory for disabled under 65s (we haven't found any lobby group for us yet). Joanna recorded a message on the answer phone of a radio programme. The next day we tuned in to the station with fingers crossed and were surprised and excited to hear her voice floating over the waves. We had over 500 people come and look at our site thanks to that ad, though not sure how many actually got round to writing to the President.(http://pchmenage.wordpress.com/)

Teaspoon in for scale, still impressive though.

We've found a sleep specialist nearby who works closely with our doctor so knows about our illness. She's kind and efficient. Joanna had her sleep recording this week and will be starting a treatment soon; Liz will have one in December, and Ruth's going for a brain M.R.I. after that. Ruth had her gall bladder out in April and they found an impressive collection of stones in there. We had thought to compare it to Liz's stone saved from 10 years previous but we left it on the table overnight and the dog ate it...

Sunset, view from the flat

Some of you of you will realise that compared with 10 years housebound and being too weak even to be able to go to hospital appointments this is all very exciting (well, if your life is sufficiently dull). We've had the strength to take on all this because of a year of antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease and co-infections (the previous attempt helped get us up from bedbound, but ended 2006/7 with relapse due to over exertion). We could really do with a period of stability for our systems to be more receptive to the treatment (we've been saying that for how many years now? lol) We have found a group that is making a national regester of those damaged by the Hepatitis B jabs of the mid to late 90s (Ruth and Joanna were 1996) although only those who were compulsorily vaccinated are elegible for compensation so far. We plan to get Ruth and Joanna's names on the list at least for statistical purposes and they will let us know if there is any evolution in the situation for others getting compensation.