Rainy day

A day patterned by journeys across town, with and for each of the grandkids in turn.  The image shows the first of these, as I walked back from taking Eben to school, while Ruth got Luca ready for a trial session at a new playgroup.
Later Ruth and Luca and I met up at lunchtime, and Luca came home to spend the afternoon with us. Soon after that, Marianna phoned to say that she'd fainted at work, in Chesterfield. Richard and I tried to persuade her to let one of us drive over and pick her up; however, she felt well enough to drive, and phoned later to say that she was safely home. However, to cut a long story short, Jack rang later to say that on the advice of the NHS 111 service, he'd taken her to Accident and Emergency for a general check-up and some tests. We all knew this would mean a wait of several hours at best, and so I dropped Luca back at Ruth's, and then picked Frieda up from after-school club. She and I had a companionable teatime.  When I explained where Jack and Marianna were (in the most reassuring terms I could manage), she was initially a bit dismayed: "But I wanted to go to the doctor's with Mama, because I want to see if the baby's a boy or a girl..." I explained that this would be a later hospital visit, and that she hadn't missed anything.  She settled down to sleep around 7.45 and I flopped onto the sofa with the cat. 
 J and M eventually got home around 9 p.m.,  exhausted but relieved because the  tests showed nothing serious going on. On balance, I feel we all got off fairly lightly with a wait of something like 5 hours, given all the recent reports about the crisis in the NHS.
M is nearly 5 months pregnant, and is just exhausted I think.  Her freelance work routine is challenging, to say the least, although I also know that she enjoys it, and it was her choice to take this pathway.  But there's no safety net: no one to cover if she's unwell; no sick leave or maternity leave. Fortunately, M's parents are arriving on Friday for a two week stay; that'll mean a lot of extra help around the house, and with Frieda.