Sunrise

Yesterday I got the news that a friend had died in her sleep, found in the morning by her young lodger.

Elenor  and I were members of the team of volunteers who ran the surplus food cafe,  as some blippers may remember. The cafe closed four years ago but I  met Elenor in the street or the market every now and then and we exchanged news. We weren't close friends, neither of us had been to the other's house, but I occasionally left some eggs or garden produce on her doorstep, and once or twice I visited in hospital where she was a frequent patient.

Elenor suffered from brittle diabetes which means that your blood glucose level is highly unstable and needs constant monitoring. Over the years Elenor had lost the abilty to recognise whether she was getting hypo- or hyper-glycaemic which put her at great risk especially as she lived alone. All this changed when she got a Medical Detection Dog. These are dogs trained to recognise alterations in scent that are indetectable to us and to alert their 'owner' to take action. Aster was brought to meet Elenor on a preliminary visit, not even fully trained, but to everyone amazement was able to alert her immediately that something was amiss. From then on they went everywhere together.  At the cafe Aster would spend the day sleeping in a corner but now and then would rouse herself and bark. It was the signal that Elenor needed to check her glucose levels and inject herself.

Recently Elenor's health had worsened and she suffered a series of fractures which meant she had to use crutches and couldn't deal with a large dog any more. An indwelling continuous glucose monitor meant that she no longer needed a dog to alert her and Aster went to stay with a foster family,much missed and kept in touch with.

Despite the huge difficulty created by her medical condition Elenor was always cheerful and upbeat, enthusiastic and capable in the kitchen  when we were either overwhelmed with excessive amounts of (say) bananas or broccoli, or else scratching around to create meals from very little. Elenor was a whiz at cheese-making,  a mistress of cawl  (never include parsnip!) and a dab hand with shellfish. I remember us spending a whole afternoon  picking the meat out of twenty spider crabs, not something I would want to repeat.

Another of Elenor's skills was in helping the school children and other young people who came to do work experience  at the cafe. One of them, Stephen, responded to the news of her death thus:
I am very sad she gave me lots of washing up and I loved her.
I liked aster too.


Elenor appears in a number of my blips eg here, here and here. 
And this is Aster.
Medical Detection Dogs are now being trained to identify if people have  Covid.

For all of us there will be a dawn we will not see.