When I was about 6 or 7 I caught something from playing in sea water with raw sewage in. I was so sick that I was sent to my grandparents to best be attended round the clock. The doctor came every day for a week. I remember banana medicine (anti biotics) and lucozade.
1/
1/
They put me in Grandad's room, with the big bed, because the door was angled such as to be more visible than the other rooms. I don't recall if Grandad got the sofa or went back in with Nan. Knowing Nan probably not. My Nan knew her own mind regards men and their place.
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2/
It was days before I could even sit up. Then grandad who'd been watching me from the chair, started reading to me. I heard long articles I couldn't understand about Hong Kong and the "Footsie One Hundred", which I thought was a sport. My Nan chided him "you'll confuse her".
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3/
Poor Grandad was bored rigid, on watch for hours every time Nan had to do anything. Nan always had to do something too- she was like that. Reading worked great, because the minute I was over the delerious patch enough to follow at all, I'd to ask questions and he loved that.
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4/
I can remember him plodding off to get an Atlas to show me Hong Kong and I can remember falling asleep when he was trying to explain the "Footsie One Hundred". Nan disapproved. We'd share conspiratorial nods when she'd go back to the kitchen and he'd start reading again.
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5/
It was two weeks before I went back to school. So long it felt like my class were in a different year group. Grandad took me to school. We were best mates by then.
My Nan would've made Flo Nightingale look filthy. My Nan was impossibly well presented, and so was the house.
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My Nan would've made Flo Nightingale look filthy. My Nan was impossibly well presented, and so was the house.
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During the worst of it, I was unable to keep anything in- so much so that I didn't even know it was happening.
Nan was changing bed linens maybe 3 times a day. She'd do each side of the bed at a time, lifting me over to work round me. Sometimes she'd carry me to the shower.
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Nan was changing bed linens maybe 3 times a day. She'd do each side of the bed at a time, lifting me over to work round me. Sometimes she'd carry me to the shower.
7/
When Nan sat with me at night, she'd tell me about her favourite sister, who died at 8 from diptheria. That was older than me and I had a GP so I wasn't scared.
They'd had doctors when Nan was young but her sister couldn't see one until it was too late. She has no headstone.
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They'd had doctors when Nan was young but her sister couldn't see one until it was too late. She has no headstone.
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I was just thinking about that time. How different it was for me to be a sick kid my Nan could love better again, and how 50 years before she hadn't been able to save a sick kid she had loved just as much.
About how much has changed but also how much has slid back.
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About how much has changed but also how much has slid back.
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Sewage is back. Preventable diseases we have vaccines for are back. Not being able to see a GP is back. That banana medicine doesn't work like it used to.
Hong Kong is not back and I don't know what happened to the Footsie One Hundred. It probably wasn't very exciting.
10/10
Hong Kong is not back and I don't know what happened to the Footsie One Hundred. It probably wasn't very exciting.
10/10
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