Saturday 15 June 2013

a week in the shadows

I was originally going to write that this has been a "challenging" week, but in truth it's been gut wrenching...

The unexpected news that Debbie had lost her battle with mesothelioma last weekend cast a long, deep shadow over us.  This was swiftly followed by news that two more meso warriors, Helen and Colin, had died in the following days and others are clinging to life by the most slender threads. The shadows seem to have become longer and deeper as the week progressed.  Yet another meso death was announced this morning by Lou in Australia.  I can't remember such a week for sad news on the meso front....

Not surprisingly, the mesothelioma community on Facebook has been knocked sideways. However, while we may be down, we are certainly not out.  We take comfort and gather strength from each other through these difficult times, in the same way that we share and celebrate each others good news. We wouldn't have shadow if it wasn't for light.  I'm hoping that next week the balance will be redressed - at least a little - with more light and good news.  

We will certainly have something to celebrate tomorrow....please come back to celebrate with us!

In the meantime, we have soldiered on but it has been a bit of an uphill struggle. We have been arranging our next adventure, something I usually find exciting.  However, this time things haven't gone smoothly.  Accommodation we hoped to book has not been available; I have made silly mistakes about dates (my mind on other things) which have taken time and energy to resolve.  

Accommodation and rail tickets eventually sorted, it was Steve's turn to be frustrated by car hire arrangements - to our surprise, the rental companies charge the equivalent of two days car hire if you pick up and drop off the car in different locations, even though in our case the pick up/drop off points are only 100 km/just over an hour apart in travel time.  Too late now to unpick all the other arrangements; we will know better in future....

Thankfully, not everything has been so difficult or frustrating.  Our business accounts and report were signed off without a hitch and my tax return has been sorted. Thank you Victoria!  A tutorial for one of my images has been published in the 1X book Photographic Visions and two more have been requested and now written for the next tutorial book.  



Shortlisted images in the Best Shots Photographic Competition (where I was a 1st round judge) have been reviewed and the winners selected by the 2nd round judges. I've written a few sentences about four of the prize winning images ready for the big announcement and exhibition launch in July, which we hope to attend.

We are now enjoying a weekend with daughter Katie visiting, talking long into the night over a bottle or two of wine.  May this be the start of the good times returning....


....A big group hug to all the meso warriors out there, their carers, family and friends x



No comments:

Post a Comment