A Time of Transition…

It’s been a little over a month since Dad passed. I’ve been reasonably quiet across all platforms while I’ve adjusted to life without him, so, I thought I’d pop back and write a quick update on what’s been going on for us…

We’ve had a rocky month with Husband. He fell sick and was hospitalised at the same time Dad was in his last few days.
It was literally THE worst timing!

Neil had developed something called Epiploic Appendagitis, which is not serious and doesn’t require surgery but is extremely painful. It mimics appendicitis or diverticulitis in pain and symptoms, only it doesn’t throw any abnormal test results. So, for the first 8 days of extreme pain, 3 GP visits and one trip to the ER and no one could figure out what was wrong with him. It wasn’t until he collapsed at home in the kitchen and I called an ambulance for him, that they did a CT scan and found that’s what was causing his pain/symptoms.

Unfortunately, Neil hit his head on the oven during his collapse, before I got around the bench and caught him. From which he got a concussion. Cue me freaking out because his symptoms were similar to last year when he had 9 MONTHS OFF WORK from a different concussion. I was feeling ill-equipped to go through that again on the back of losing Dad, that’s for sure!

But, I’m pleased to say that this head injury has been a much more rapid recovery than last year. The initial symptoms were more severe, but they got better much quicker. He has started back at work, although he is doing a gradual return and won’t be back full-time until 6th December. But he’s totally on track and doing incredibly well. (THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT).

This caused us both to completely reevaluate everything.
Because life is short.
SO short.

We’ve been asking ourselves questions like – what are we doing here?
What are our dreams?
How can we achieve these dreams?
How can we live more in community and less for the dollar?
How can we travel more?
How can we show the kids how the ‘other half’ live and volunteer holiday as a family to make an impact.

We have consequently made some pretty life-altering decisions.

They say not to make any life-altering decisions after losing a loved one. So, I’m sure some of the people that we meet (and possibly some of you) and tell our news to are thinking – ‘what are you doing, you will regret this!’
But, the thing about going through pretty much the same two terrible events, two years in a row is that it really cements for you what’s important. If we missed the message the first time, we can’t possibly miss it this time. And these were conversations that had already been had progressively over the year.

So – we are selling our big beautiful house and down-sizing.

We will miss this place immensely.
I’m really proud of what we achieved here and the transformation we have created.
But, it’s time for the next project.
So, watch this space and we’ll see what develops…

Apart from that, we are ticking along.
I have good days and bad days.
A very close friend’s Mum has just passed this week of terminal cancer which has freshened my grief back up again. I imagine it will take some time before my emotions and motivation are less of a yo-yo.

It’s my birthday next week and we have some really exciting things planned, so I am EXCITED!

I hope all is good in the world with you