Death may be inevitable, but that does not detract from the emotional upset of losing someone or some living thing close to you: a living thing that you have nurtured and cared for from its very beginning until the life is snuffed out of it. Jane has just suffered a tragic loss and, even now,Continue reading “Blog 140. I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”
Tag Archives: prostate cancer
Blog 139. The Watch Ashore
“Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone”.So ran the song by the late Bill Withers in 1971, when I was a fresh-faced young Midshipman serving in a destroyer, I had a 30” waist, plenty of fair hair, a brand new Triumph Spitfire to impress the girls, and the world was my oyster. That ship has sailed,Continue reading “Blog 139. The Watch Ashore”
Blog 132. Divorce
Well, that’s it: we have decided to part. Frankly, it still breaks my heart when I think about it: life on my own after all these years, but what choice do I have? I know I have been painting a picture of domestic bliss in all these blogs, but you may have sensed aContinue reading “Blog 132. Divorce”
Blog 130. Give Me a Ring Sometime
The final slice of tarte tatin remaining from our last dinner party lay before me, covered in cream. I savoured it for quite some moments, just as a starving survivor in a lifeboat might eye up the cabin boy for his next meal. Christmas was over, 2024 had begun, and the pudding in front ofContinue reading “Blog 130. Give Me a Ring Sometime”
Blog 127. After You With Those Crayons
So that was summer. It was 5C outside our house last night and the central heating is back on for the winter. For Jane, out go the skirts, shorts, sandals and sun tops; in come the trousers, socks, jumpers and (soon, I dare say) vests. We calculate that we, the Shacklepins, had only about thirtyContinue reading “Blog 127. After You With Those Crayons”
Blog 126. Pressing Concerns
Well, I hope I never have to go through that again. It was a supreme test of my stamina and endurance, such that I wondered if I would ever see normal life again. The ennui was as bad as the physical torture that I suffered but, at last, it is all over and I canContinue reading “Blog 126. Pressing Concerns”
Blog 124. Just One of God’s Little Soldiers
Red meat went on ration on 13 March 2023. This was to be the beginning of the new diet imposed by the memsahib after my diagnosis of prostate cancer. I accepted the imposition philosophically, if not exactly ecstatically. It is, of course, written that if a person is sick in body, he must also beContinue reading “Blog 124. Just One of God’s Little Soldiers”
"A Very Vintage Chap..." 