March brings with it a number of anniversaries. It is three years, this month, since my MND diagnosis was confirmed and two years since we left Sussex to live permanently in Nottingham. It is a full year since Covid19 lockdown started, a year in which I’ve only been outside the house (other than into the garden) on five occasions, all for medical reasons. As of 29th, we are permitted once again to entertain friends and family in our garden. All we need now is some typically un-British weather to make that a viable, enjoyable option!
I ‘celebrated’ my 69th birthday this month, my second in lockdown, and much the same as the last, seeing no-one but Doreen, but speaking to friends and family by telephone/ video chat. We did, though, have two unexpected visitors that day when a pair of beautiful mallard ducks once again appeared in our garden pond. I’d like to think it was the same pair who visited us last May. They seemed very happy in our pond but didn’t stay long, and haven’t been back since.
It is also a year since I made my first visit to the Notts Hospice day centre. I had intended to go weekly thereafter, but Covid prevented a second visit. Despite my very brief association with the hospice, Mel, their resident physiotherapist, has been brilliant, calling me every month to see how I am, and if there is anything she, or the hospice, can do to help. Recently she has been advising me on ways to relieve my growing breathlessness.
I have been using a ventilator at night for over two years, now, retiring to bed for an early afternoon 1-2 hour ‘booster’ session. Of late, though, I have been increasingly breathless in the evening when I am really tired. The NHS came to the rescue this month with the provision of a second, battery-operated ventilator, in a carry-bag which hooks over the back of my wheelchair. It allows me to remain mobile while using the ventilator. The height of luxury: A two-ventilator household……!!
Despite the Covid lockdown, there has been much to keep me entertained through televised sport. The England cricket team’s tour of India continued, while the Six Nations Rugby Championship finished with a re-scheduled match between France and Scotland in Paris. A dramatic ending saw Scotland’s winger, Duhan van der Merwe, score the winning try with the last play of the game. His name, characteristically South African, has led some to question his eligibility to represent Scotland, but the van der Merwes are, of course, a well known sub-sect of the Scottish McMerwe clan. They were early settlers in South Africa’s Cape Province, but Afrikaan-ised their name to fit in with the local Dutch settlers. Good to see one of them back in his native Scotland!!
Our garden pond is quite big, and when we bought the house we inherited 7 or 8 sizeable goldfish. Soon after, though, they began to disappear, one by one, usually while we were away in Sussex. Ruling out the possibility of an escape tunnel, it seemed likely we were being visited by a heron, although we never saw one. Six months later, when we moved here full time, we were down to two fish. These two seemed immune from predation but a year later, we were suddenly down to one.
Our remaining fish survived the summer, and seemed to be thriving and growing, helped by the copious feeding it received from visiting grandchildren. Was it now too big for the heron? But late last year, Doreen announced that our fish was gone. She had several times previously announced that one of the fish had gone, only for it to reappear a few days later! But as days turned into weeks, we began to accept that our last fish had been taken. Then, on 30th March, our fish was spotted! Where had it been for 3-4 months? Logic says that it had simply slumbered through the cold winter months, but the close proximity to Easter does make one wonder about more spiritual explanations: Resurrection perhaps? – The Miracle of Mapperley!!!