Healing

"The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love"

Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978)




Today I took some tulips and a thank you card over to Mum's neighbour Gill.  Last Friday morning Gill, who lives opposite Mum, noticed that at half past ten in the morning Mum's bedroom curtains were still closed.  Gill knew this was not normal behaviour for Mum.  She tried phoning, but got no answer.  So she went over and kept knocking and ringing at the front door until, after a very long while, Mum managed somehow to stagger out of bed and unbolt and open it.  She was suffering from the worst Ménière’s attack she has ever had, with severe symptoms of vertigo and being sick over and over.  She was as weak as a kitten and unable to eat.  Gill called my sister and stayed with Mum and cared for her until she arrived.  I have done the same for my own neighbour in the past when she had a terrible reaction to chemotherapy.  I know my neighbour would do the same for me.  It's what all good neighbours do.  We're so grateful to Gill - I dread to think of what might have happened if she hadn't taken the trouble to find out if Mum was all right.


Mum is still recovering her strength after the attack, especially in her legs.  She's been making slow but steady progress in the last few days.  I've realised with a shock that I was far more burnt out than I'd thought from working full time and trying to cope with the aftermath of losing Dad these past three months.  I've been sleeping 10 hours a night.  So Mum and I have been helping each other since I came to stay on Tuesday, both taking things very easy and not expecting too much of each other.  Friendship and love truly are great healers.