Lifes a funny thing....

[lacroupade]

Firstly, this is not a request for a sympathy vote – it’s just that there are times when it’s good to share things because they might just help someone put something into perspective. I’m an atheist but not an agnostic, so if anyone is minded to have a word upstairs, feel free!

If you’re fretting over some minor detail or a decision, or you’re having a bad day, just listen to how my day changed from sunshine to cloud in the space of about 15 minutes last night….

First my wife rang; she’s in Abu Dhabi on business and called to say she was sitting in a Marco Pierre White restaurant in her swish hotel, eating foie gras with one of her contractors. Very nice. Next her sister called to complain about the price of stuff in Waitrose (she and her husband live in a £1.8m house in Ealing…..I was tortured for her).

Then I rang my youngest daughter.

She is 19 years old and has two very small but beautifully formed children by her fiancée, a soldier in the Royal Logistics Corps. They have been working hard to build a life together on not a lot of money and have done a terrific job with my grandchildren.

Three months ago he was sent to Canada for a six-week training exercise but within two weeks was in Calgary hospital with some mystery illness….he was flown back to the UK to Birmingham Hospital after three weeks and has now been hospitalised for more than seven weeks in total, but the doctors still have zero clue about the cause of his ailments.

A few days ago, while visiting him, my daughter crossed a green traffic light with the kids in the car, only to get t-boned by some moronic f*ckwit who jumped a red light at speed. Fortunately, there were witnesses, the police attended and her outlaws-to-be were a few cars behind so were able to pick up the pieces. Everyone seems fine but the car was totalled and my daughter is now stuck at home 90 miles from the hospital, unable to visit.

When I phoned her, she told me that today the doctors had told her fiancé that he is unlikely to ever walk again. The lad has no real trade; he’s a truck driver in the Army, so their lives have been turned upside down.

Then two minutes later I get a call from my 54 year-old sister. She lives alone and has been crippled for many years with acute rheumatoid arthritis as a result of contracting Stills Disease when she was 15. She is on ten different medications and over the years has endured a number of painful operations, including amputation of her toes.

Yesterday afternoon she was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer and is currently awaiting an MRI scan to see if it has spread any further, but in the meantime has to cease some of her medication, resulting in severe pain and further disablement.

This morning I sat on the river beach at the bottom of our fields in Wales in one of the most peaceful times I’ve ever known, reflecting on these facts. There wasn’t a breath of wind and all you could hear were the birds singing and the river rushing by while my dogs milled around aimlessly enjoying themselves.

What the hell is it all about eh?

Stay safe and live your life while you've got it.