Toward the Final Curtain Q

I have been away since Friday attending a meeting of the Presbytery. It was announced to the meeting that a former Moderator, who last attended a meeting ( hale and hearty I might add) in August of 2019. had died. There was no indication of what was to come when he attended in August of last year. In the November meeting we were informed that he was ill and then the news that it was an aggressive brain cancer. He stabilized over Christmas and New Year but at the beginning of this month (February) he was rushed into hospital as the cancer had become more aggressive.  Sadly, it was terminal and he died on 13th February. We expect his funeral to be sometime this week, so I may be heading off to Adelaide again. Ok well that’s Plan A but I have the feeling that I may have to activate Plan B, which is to submit an apology and stay here instead.

When I got home on Saturday evening I  said my “hello” to Benji and then got Annabell in the car and up to the Emergency Dept at the Hospital. She had been unwell all day and was in some discomfort. She has an UTI and was in a bit of pain. She was seen to fairly quickly and after some tests and samples, she was given medication to last her until today. I have made the appointment with the doctor so we’ll see what happens, but this is happening much too often and we really have to get to the cause of the problem. Why did I have to

take her to hospital??? Because she put up with the discomfort all day and never called anyone, not even one of the boys. They could have had her up at the hospital  during the day . But she said, she didn’t want to cause a concern so she suffered until I got home. She worries me!! At the moment she is sleeping. She got up and showered early in case we were able to get a very early appointment. However as it is an afternoon appointment, she has gone for a rest and a bit of a sleep. We have spent the last week either at the doctor,  the clinic for blood tests or the hospital for particular medication. We have the weekend off and we start again first thing on Monday morning. Since I wrote all that a week ago, we have spent most of the week travelling back and forth to doctors, blood tests and hospital.  It seems her potassium levels were off the chart and that really concerned the doctor so we have spent the week working on getting that back down to normal. I was unaware of the

dangers of high potassium – I’m not anymore!! Tomorrow is, as I said, Monday again and we start a new week and see what that brings

Prior to leaving for Adelaide I  listened to the weather forecast which was for rain, thunderstorms and possibly hail for Adelaide, so I put a raincoat on the back seat. The drive down to Port Wakefield was great – traffic was light and the weather was good. The weather in Adelaide was excellent, about 33c and no sign of any rain. When you go to a foreign country there are always somethings you miss from the “Old Country” For us Scottish people it is the very simple things in life – Scotch Pies, Potato Scones, Ayrshire Bacon, and Lorne  Sausages, Irn Bru and Lees Macaroon Bars  Well, there is a butcher that does make these but he is miles away from the centre of Adelaide. However, having contacted him I was told that he supplies Continental Foods in Salisbury Shopping Centre and the same company in Ingle Farm Shopping Centre  both of which are within easy reach. From where I was, Salisbury was closer – and yes, I got everything I wanted and packed it into a Cooler with Ice Blocks. Continental Foods, so I was also able to get Lees Macaroon Bars – mind you, just about had to take out a bank loan for them.

I did not get to the funeral. It had been organised for Saturday – a private family funeral and a Memorial Service in the afternoon.  Apart from the fact that I needed to get home for the service on Sunday. I had arrangements this week and next week with the RFDS, I also wanted to be here just in case we had to go to the hospital again.  Sad I was not able to attend, but these things do happen.