Wednesday

Funny old day. Coffee with one of the bestest mates Isla. Full of wedding chat. Jen is marrying Ian after many years, next spring. All excitement and dresses and venues. Bringing me back to the reality. It was only this time last year that we were doing the exact same thing, with final preparations underway for Louise and James' Wedding. Two weeks in Barbados, with friends and family. Definitely the best holiday that we have ever been on.
Hospital at 4. Colin in good spirits. Breathing is going well. I was allowed to see his pressure sore, which is now the size of a 10p piece. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.
A new patient was admitted. A very young boy of 19. His parents arrived, and the curtain was drawn. Why do hospitals think that this obscures any hearing? Do hospitals feel that they are magical silencing curtains, that once drawn do not allow any sound to pass through them? I suppose it is to protect the privacy. I will only say that anyone who has a child, will never want to have the conversation that went on behind that curtain. I was nearly in pieces. Colin and I both thinking how we have a 19 year old and how things would have been if we were behind that drawn curtain.
Visiting over I headed home. I am not going in today. Les and Wendy, from Colin's work, are going in. He will enjoy the new chat!
Thursday
My friends Corrine- who Colin and I have been friends with her FOREVER. She is the person who fancied my brothers, got tipsy on advocaat and lemonade on Christmas day with me, left her baby with me whilst she went to Geneva skiing, and promptly broke her leg, served her right!!
Anyways! We chatted and laughed about Colin.
Many years ago, she remembers it as the year that she was 19, quite ironic really considering the young boy in the southern.I had just returned to the airlines, flying with Logan Air, how glamorous.
Anyway, during my days on the ground, I met Corrine, we hit it off right away. She looked on me as the wiser, older women. I was 22, who knew!
She had been wittering on about this chap she really fancies. He was a dispatcher. How would she start a conversation with him, how would she know if he liked her or not?
Oh god, he was going to be dispatching a flight at the next gate! What was she going to say??
Full of anticipation, we waited for this god to appear.
"Here he is, oh I can't bear it!" she said
"Oh, that will be Colin then. My Husband!" I said.
If only I could describe the look on her face, fresh still in my memory.
"You bitch", she said. And that was that. Best Friends Forever.
Through her further romantic adventures and babies, and drunken nights, even canoodling up to Louise's father in law, much to amusement of Jo (the wife) and myself.
From Karaoke parties to night of tears and tantrums (both her and me). Oh yes, Corrine will be there to the end, for both Colin and me.

PS. Corrine not happy, she was 19 and had no taste in men at that time. She has now matured. Also she was just being friendly at the wedding party, and until Brad Pitt becomes available, she will remain young free and single.