Tears & Fears

It's Jude's birthday on Monday. She is basically getting a 3 day birthday out of it. Today, her 2 sons came down to see her, one being able to stay the night, one not. Chris & Mel, as they always do, made a huge fuss of her with flowers, some beautiful sarongs as a present & a lovely birthday cake, which sadly she can't eat. I couldn't sing "Happy Birthday" for her. The tears just welled up in my eyes, but the others did & she loved it. Later on, something happened which I'm not going to detail, that drove it into me how much she is deteriorating. I had to go outside & cry. The little dog of course came with me & sat on my knee for a while gently licking the tears from my eyes. It was one of those truly desolate moments. Mel , bless her, realised that something was amiss & came out & Joined me. We sat & quietly talked for a little while. I was so glad to have someone there to talk to that would just listen & not try to equate what I was feeling with something that had happened to her. Too often I end up doing my crying on my own. Whispa tries very hard to understand, but she is a dog after all.

Sharon is coming down tomorrow, hopefully bringing the kids with her. That will fulfil my wish of Jude getting to see all her kids & grandchildren. Monday, our dear friends Grant & Annette are calling in for an hour or so which will crown a lovely birthday for her.

I haven't brought her a present. What I have been doing though is tidying up her gardens for her. I have done what I think is a very creditable job on the front garden, weeding it, transplanting some Flag Irises & planting out a heap of other plans & seeds. It just about needs weeding again, but I am too scared to until the seeds I planted come to something identifiable. I've just about got the shade house useable again & intend to sort out her sadly neglected orchids there. I've made a start on the garden in the center of the back lawn & still have the rockery to do. Its amazing what you can accomplish in half an hour or so a day, but like the cheese ads say, "Good things take time."