Memories of underlying sadness

My flesh and my heart may fail , but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73: 26 God is with you even when you are struggling, physically, emotionally, mentally.

A continuation of my childhood memories I try to add to each week.

While going to the sea at the end of most years,  having ice-cream on Sunday and a special lunch (Mum had mostly prepared on Friday) on special plates on Sabbath, was all part of our routine there was underlying sadness.

Firstly, my sister had developed dreadful pains in her abdomen area and there were diagnoses which included hypochondria ( a very unkind thing to say to anyone).  When fistulas appeared and the pain was worse than ever my parents were distraught!  Shelly actually had  Chron’s disease which the medical profession at that time were not aware of.  ( When Shelly was 18 she was the first person in S Africa to be properly diagnosed.)

Then there was our neighbour’ s daughter Lyn who was diagnosed with hochkin lymphoma.  Lyn was in her late teens early twenties. We had two large cable bobbins on each side of the fence so Mom could go over quickly to be with them when times were bad.  This illness continued for a few years.  Mom was  working as night Matron at the Mater Dei when she  was able to support the family for Lyn’s last few hours. Mom was heartbroken.

Thirdly, the bush wars were going on which had there different stresses. There were painful events reported by friends and on the news.  However, our town and where we lived never felt unsafe.

Inspite of the three above “sadnesses” we girls as well as our parents were doing our best to keep life ‘normal’.

We must understand that sadness is an ocean, and sometimes we drown,  while other days we are forced to swim.

R.M. Drake

Every person has their secret sorrow which the world knows not; and often we call a person cold when they are only sad.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Today Ryan Peniston ( a British tennis player) is playing tennis. As  a child he survived soft tissue cancer with the removal of a tumour and chemotherapy. 

Here is a cheer for cancer survival week.                                                         Here is a man who is delighting us with his tennis.                                          A real hero!!!