Grandad died today. Age 89, peacefully in his sleep, with my dad there with him.
He’d suffered recently with a diseased liver and pnemonia but on balance he led a healthy and fulfilled life – four children, survived the war and always with a joke up his sleeve. He was S’s number one fan.
It’s a relief that his suffering is over. But we’re sad he’s gone.
My Grandad or GDB, as we have come to call him – my paternal and last-remaining grandparent is dying. His has been a relatively healthy life, although has been housebound by knee problems in the last few years. He’s 89 years old and has had a “good innings”. He is now in hospital with a variety of fairly serious illnesses – including a failing liver (producing litres of fluid in his abdomen which require constant draining), diabetes, varicose veins in his throat, MRSA on his skin and pneumonia.
It is sad when anyone dies, but I admit to not being particularly sentimental about death and always think the right emotion to select when someone who has had a long life, reaches the end, is purely relief. I think having a good and long life should be enough to prepare you for the inevitable and when the time comes, hope that it is relatively quick.
My mum and dad are at his side, supporting him to the last and despite his understanding that he is close to the end and apologising for “hanging on”, he has admitted that he is “frightened of letting go”. He has rallied a few times – having been too unwell to even drink anything for a couple days, he woke this morning and had several spoonfuls of porridge!
I don’t believe there is an afterlife – when you’re gone, you’re gone. Which I think is a positive endorsement to enjoy and live your life to the full whilst you are here.
So, nothing to be afraid of, especially when it creeps up on you slowly and after a good life. I will be celebrating my grandad’s life and hope he does go peacefully soon.
Our weekends are frequently put under strain by S’s work schedule but this week We took a rare weekend off and “did what normal people do”. Well, maybe not everyone. We went to the Ragged Cot, a recently renovated pub/restaurant/inn in the small Cotswold town of Minchinhampton – I can highly recommend it. One of those places where you just know the experience is going to be great – chic, modern rooms, very clean, nice smell (important), little details, friendly staff.
On the Saturday morning we got up at 5.30am (again, maybe not particularly normal) and headed off for a hot air balloon ride across the Cotswold villages. We were incredibly lucky, ours was the only flight in seven days (due to inclement weather) and there were people with us who’d been waiting more than 12 months to actually fly and had nearly concluded that the company was just an elaborate scam to hold their money.
The weather was beautiful though and the flight – especially the inflation and the landing, was a great experience. Few nice photos below.
We followed the experience (after a nap) with a trip to Woodchester Mansion – the most incredible building I think I’ve ever seen… built (or rather not quite finished) in the mid 1800s by one William Leigh, it was designed to be a family home (on a grand scale) mixed with a Catholic commune. It is elaborately gothic (see the pictures below), still a building site and quite eerily spooky. The fact that the builders departed swiftly (when William ran out of cash) means that unlike most gothic buildings, you can see how they built it – with the most incredible stone engineering and what the Victoria/Georgian’s thought was most important in such a building – “clean air” was a priority, for example. But there was a shower room with overhead gargoyle spout as well as a deep bath, carved out of limestone (and intended to be lined with lead) with gargoyle taps.
The place is really a very elaborate folly – it is estimated it will cost £6-7million just to “restore to it’s original condition” the chapel (just one part of the building). And donations and grants are relied upon just to keep the water out. It will never be finished and thus is destined to be an expensive and eccentric oddity as long as it still stands.
It was a wonderful diversion for an afternoon though and if I had the money, I’d want to buy it and turn it into the most fantastic (if crazy) house.
Few photos:
If you’re trying to email please using @yahoo.com instead of @oddpost.com. Or you can email me via this site also.
Inexplicably, Yahoo has done something to screw up my Yahoo account – or at least the @oddpost.com one. I haven’t received any email since Wednesday.
So if you’re trying to get in touch, swap the yahoo.com extension for the oddpost.com one and job’s a good ‘un.
I have tried taking up my complaint with Yahoo and they say they’re on it – but won’t give any ETA for a fix. I consider this pretty poor service since I pay them for the account. Their live chat facility is functional but when you talk to the agents (who must be based in India) they are insincere.
Hopefully it’ll work soon.
T
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