Grandma P's Ramblings Through Life

But I wasn't relaxed.....soon I was crying. Yes, you know why.......the constant loud noise and horrible laughing suddenly touched a nerve.

I had to get over that - after all it is me who decides my reactions to the situation.

I made plans to get out this afternoon.

But before we left home the phone rang with more complications.

It was the hospital Day Surgery Ward. The anaesthetist is not happy. The GP should not have said that Bill is fine to have his operation  - not without checking things out more fully.

It seems that the hospital are arranging that Bill should have an echo scan and a 24 hour ECG.

It is a very normal precaution when a patient shows some signs of heart problems.

After feeling cross with the GP - and I am tending to do that more these days - I realised that he might have done us a favour. The extended heart tests will be done much sooner if the hospital arrange them.

But certainly there must be a delay before the hernia operation.

We wait and see.

And then this afternoon we were at the hospital - but neither of us were the patient.

We took Bill's sister, Pam to see  sister Jane.

Jane has an infection which needed in patient treatment for a while.

As always, she is cheerfully coping with this hiccup in her routine.

Whilst we were there we popped to another ward to see next door neighbour Frieda.

I am not sure that she understands much about what is going on or even where her home is.

The chances are that it won't be her home again. She is 93, very frail and confused with life.

Some other visitors came to see her. I suggested Bill went back to see his sister.

"Do you want me to come with you?" I asked.

He assured me not and off he went.

He returned and said he decided not to stay because other people were with her.

Later it transpired that Jane had seen no other people at all.

I wonder where he went and where he barged into.

He did tell me later in the day that he had seen somebody on a bed somewhere with a leg amputated at the hip......he couldn't remember where and asked where we had had lunch.

No Bill - unlikely to come upon an amputee in bed in Wetherspoons!

Then the three of us, Pam, Bill and I went for tea and cake at La Rusta.

Ooh lovely!

We parked in the High Street and Bill strode off a little ahead of Pam and I. He likes walking with purpose along lines or between lines, so he likes pavements!

He marched a little past the cafe door.

It seems he was noticed.

Ana (partner in la Rusta) spotted Bill.

She said she wondered about seeing Bill being on his own and was pleased to see me catch up with him.

Now that's why I love La Rusta.......apart from the food and drink and atmosphere.

We are people, not customers. Alex and Ana are aware of who we are.

It is like being served up tea and cake by friends and I relish being looked after.

And amongst all the hospital news, there has been a death.
I never knew Shirley temple, of course. But I felt a bond with her because my nickname when a toddler was Shirley Temple.
It was the German prisoners of war, still in the UK a couple of years after the war ended, who called me that. My parents became friends with a few of them.
That was something that shaped my thinking quite a lot; in a world where the prevailing thoughts might have been "The only good German is a dead German" , I learned very differently - I loved my German friends and they adored me.
I don't actually know just how prevalent was the German feeling, but as I grew older I was certainly aware of it in some people.
I grew up knowing that there are people of all nationalities who one should love and respect and that all in trouble deserve our help and support.
But back to Shirley Temple........I did, indeed look quite like her.


















Pictures of us in adult life continue to show some similarity.
How I wished my name was Shirley.