We have a variety of news to report, very mixed. I will get the bad news over with early. I was contacted by my oncologist (never a good sign) to say that my most recent scan shows that I have another tumour. It is in my pelvic area and although small, it is of course an indication that the disease has spread into another part. We are knocked, to be honest with you. It is hard to reconcile to a positive view point and it seriously tests faith. However, life at the moment is a day by day thing and the great advantage of faith is that it widens the range of possibilities and means that you don't have to abandon hope even when the 'inevitable road' seems nearer. So ... we are hanging in there.
Now, onto happier things. Mary and I have been married for nineteen years! Hardly seems any time at all since that sunny day in 1988. We looked back at the wedding album ... quite a sight. We could both pass for fourteen. Thankfully I now only look thirty five years older than I did back then. The scary thing is that the twenty five year milestone is almost in sight. I remember my parents' silver wedding and at the time I regarded them pretty much as pensioners, who had lived the best part of their lives and were probably ready to apply for a warden controlled flat. My mother was only five years older then than I am now!
The truly great news, however, is that I survived the school Sports Day. Thank you for all your prayers of support! After a near-violent incident last year between the mother of a Year 3 boy and a nervous line judge, I had the job of choosing who was first across the line. Nightmare!! Here is the flow of consciousness I had as the infants began the walking egg and spoon race:
'...Okay, some children have begun to run and this is a walking egg and spoon race. Hopefully they'll drop the egg. Drat ... the runner is in the lead and is going to win. I should disqualify her, but she is only five; she's just over excited. Mind you, if I let her win, do I let the older 'running children' win in the next race? At what age should I start disqualifying children for running? Oh no, she has dropped the egg and has crossed the line ... first, but eggless. Does that count? Mum's on her feet and embracing her, shouting 'You've won darling! You've won!' I'll just give her first place .. no one will care. Why is there a group of mums standing together over there? Mrs Jones, whose daughter came second... she is storming over. Her daughter is sobbing and has thrown her egg into the hedge! If I were to disqualify the part-running, laterally-eggless winner claiming that she failed a doping test, would it make the press? "Hi Mrs Jones..."
Finally ... calm yourselves, but I have at last finished my MBA. I graduated on 12th July from Leicester University It only took me 7 years! I did, in my defence, have four years off in the middle. My tutor who during that period sent me an email simply asking "Where are you?" and another stating "Your time is up!" was very gracious and it all ended happily. My thesis is a rivetting read!! "Managing Primary Schools in Crisis" ... oh yes, I know how to party!
Anyway, enough for now. I will leave you with a brief poem about people hanging onto hope by the skin of their teeth:
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.
.
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Abraham
A father of nations?
Is that what you were told
as you stood there, childless,
like a dry tree, old and
creaking in the cold
of your constant winter?
Sarah, four score and more,
did she feel life flicker
deep inside an empty core?
Okay Father Abraham,
I'll put down this pen
and you tell me again ... and again ... and again.
