Time to reflect

It’s been a tough start to the year. Nothing ever goes the way you plan it, but that is life and we have little choice but to go with the flow and follow it’s course.

On 20th January, after over eight years of living with Alzeheimers disease, my father finally found peace. His Alzheimer’s journey has been a long and tortuous one, so it was a very heart wrenching and bitter sweet moment to be with him at the end, but I’m glad I was there.

These last few weeks have been a time to reflect, to celebrate what an amazing man my Dad was. Meeting people again for the first time in over thirty years has been a true joy, we’ve had tears and laughter; and that’s how it should be. It’s been a time to truly appreciate and be grateful for how that man touched so many lives. And I am so very thankful that so many people came forward to share their stories and pay personal tributes to him. I’m sure he’s somewhere smiling and nodding his head.

So now it’s the middle of February and we’ve heading away from Congleton looking for some time to recharge and look to the future. As sad as this time is, it does bring families together and I’m certainly feeling very close to mine, even though some of them are hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The technology that we live with today makes communication so easy and so instantaneous, it’s easy to forget standing in the rain, with your coins in your pocket, waiting for your turn in the phone box or watching for the postman to bring a letter that’s taken weeks to arrive.

As much as we try to plan our futures, there are always times in our lives when we are stronger together. Sometimes we forget that life can be like a spider’s web, we might run along a strand, but the web is always stronger when we follow the spirals back to the middle, bringing us back together again.