Norman's garden

Gulli was off school because he had a nasty fall yesterday and had a headache, so he came for a long dog walk with me and Emma and dog Belle in Bushy Park, then as max had a photo shoot in the living room till 12 we couldn't really go home so we visited Mum, Gulli hasn't seen her for a while and was shocked by her appearance, she is very thin and when we got there she had refused her breakfast, her eyes were swollen and crusty, her lips were dry and she just looked dreadful, I asked a carer to clean her eyes and get her ready to go in the garden, she said she had cleaned them when she woke up so she must have an infection, I told the nurse and asked for the doctor. I asked her why she didn't feel like eating and she said she didn't feel right and that her bladder was bad, one of the symptoms of MSA is loss of bladder control but i also mentioned this to the nurse and they said they would take a sample and send off to the Dr.
She enjoyed the garden and I fed her a couple of biscuits. Norman was there tending to his beautiful garden that the Home and his family have created for him, he has no legs and zips around in his chair sprinkling manure and watering, he has a tool low shed adapted so that he can get in and out of it with no help, he is so independent and at 93 an inspiration. He always gets Mum to give him a smile and they do a thumbs up and he holds her hand, he always reassures her that she is filled with the Holy Spirit, he has been a quaker since the 40s, in one of my photos the shadow of the trellis makes the sign of the cross, the Holy Spirit perhaps?
Mum was glad to see Gulli and asked if he had grown, we stood next to each other for her so she could see that he had grown! He is almost as tall as Max now.

I felt wiped out when we got back so after lunch Gulli and I watched a few episodes of One Upon A Time and then i had a sleep, max made a curry from Sue's leftover lamb which was yummy and then it was off to Jazz After Dark to entertain people. The Show Must Go On and personal life is left in the wings, I had an amazing night with all tables taken, Sue Foll came with her lovely friends Ian and Ken and took these great photos which she has blipped HERE and HERE, my friend Victoria and her friend and also a fan called Katherine who brought a friend from work, the others were a couple from Israel, 3 people from Catalonia - one guy lives here and had brought his cousin and his wife who were celebrating 25 years of marriage and had never been outside Catalonia before this year! Also a lovely girl suffering a broken heart with her brother and mother who ended up singing and and dancing with me at the end after shedding a few tears. A very lively couple one of whom can be seen fanning me in Sue's blip, he was also an enthusiastic singer and took the mic for part of 'Valerie', a photographer and his girlfriend, a man on his own from the States... I asked some of them how they had decided to come and it seems it had come up on internet searches and when they had read up on me they had made the choice. It was a great night full of laughter, tears, joie de vivre and singing of course, music is a healer and has helped me through so much.