I have been quiet for a while as I struggle with family issues. Yet again, I have a difficult post to write. If we haven’t known each other very long, you may not know that the last 4 years have been hard to say the least.
Lesley & Mike on a bench on a recent trip to Bexhill.
My eldest daughter had had bad health for some time and in 2022 she was diagnosed with cancer. By May 2023 it was stage 4 and we lost her in December that year. Her husband died suddenly and unexpectedly just 13 months later. Which left their then 17 year old daughter on her own. She now lives with us, along with her two pesky cats. We didn’t have pets for a reason!
My daughter, husband and grand daughter at our wedding in 2015
Those two mischievous cats
My grand daughter now on a half term visit to the Brighton Pavilion. She is sketching for a college project, she’s doing Art & Design, and doing it very well too! She’s very creative and can capture the essence of something in a one minute sketch.
Then in April last year, my husband had a stroke. We were extremely fortunate in that we were literally just about to go out to lunch and he would have been driving; I found him within a minute, and he got everything he needed very quickly. He was recovering, but then started going backwards. Many symptoms including breathlessness, loss of appetite and no energy. Blood tests showed he was severely anaemic and further investigations revealed that he has stage 4 colon cancer.
Mike mucking about with our son-in-law at our wedding.
We are devastated. Hard conversations must be had and I am trying to cover everything that needs to be done whilst continuing to keep everything going for everyone. We will have him for months rather than years and I cannot presently imagine what my life will be like without him.
In amongst all this chaos, I still want to continue writing about recipes and general foodie related things as it is what I love, but as Mike can only eat very limited things now, it might prove more difficult that usual!
