Settling down

We had the family here for dinner for the first time in two weeks – that’s the three boys and Rachel.

So who is Rachel, well she is Andrew’s new love. Andrew and Connor’s mother split up about 17 months ago. In the intervening time Andrew met Rachel. She has been here with him and Connor several times and she is a lovely  young  woman. She is very nice, very down to earth and I can talk to her a lot easier than I was able to talk to Patrica  (Trish) I like her and I would like to see this relationship progress.

One would think that after all the years I have been doing this that I should be able to write a church service and an address without too much difficulty, yet today I was a mess. I made so many mistakes and lost the plot a couple of times. I did not have a good morning! Only a few people have been turning up to service.  The reasons for this is that the Government Rules are that we must wear masks, we must have a 1’4 metre distance

and we cannot remove masks to sing. Because of this a number of people with health issues related to mask wearing will not come to church and a number of people who don’t want to sit in church for the length of time  the service takes and have to wear a mask, also wont come. So, until such time as the government removes the mask issue, our numbers will decline.

A good number of years ago I was in Adelaide. I lived in Adelaide for over three years. Yes I was able to go home  fairly frequently, but it’s not the same. During my time there I was in and around Elizabeth and was active in the church there. Elizabeth church became my second home. So, it was quite a shock to me to be told on Thursday that my dear friend, Agnes, had died. Agnes was the Session Clerk of the church for many years and was not only a great help to me, but was also a good friend. The Elizabeth people were very good and helped to look after me during my stay there.  Being told that she had died, hurt me very much in that I didn’t even know what she had been so ill.

Some years ago, before Annabell became ill, I had to spend the weekend in Adelaide. On the Sunday people asked Annabell where in Adelaide I was staying and were told that      ” John is in North Adelaide’  “Oh so he will be going to North Adelaide Church then?”         ” No”, said Annabell , ” If I know John, he will be in Elizabeth Church”  And she was right – that is where I was.   So yes it was a shock to me to be told About Agnes and my heart wept for all my friends in Elizabeth.  I really wish I could be there with them tomorrow for the funeral,  but it means two days away and  my job is here – to look after Annabell. As it turns out, Annabell is not the best today.

There is no report from the hospital in Adelaide so we do not know what the results of the tests are. I should like to think we will have some information sometime this coming week. I  should also like to think that whatever the results are, we should be ok until the  visit in December. We have advised the medical people in Adelaide that if the units need to be replaced,  the scripts, should be faxed to the pharmacy  here and we will have them filled out and bring them down with us.

Today, (Monday) I went back down to the Wetlands for the morning walk with Benji. An unfortunate decision as Annabell was unwell and didn’t call me because she knew where I was. I was quite annoyed and she should have called me and  I would have come home. For the time being I will  stay in the area with Benji where I can be home in minutes rather than a quarter of an hour away- longer if she calls and I happen to be on the ‘wrong side’ of the ponds.