Positively Melancholy

When we lost my Nan, we all rallied around my Grandad to support him ... to keep him upright and sane. I was there every day, all day for weeks until I ran myself completely into the ground. I ended up bed ridden for a month in some of the most severe pain I've ever experienced. Since then, I've been sure to make sure that I go to spend some time with my Grandad at least once a week but for no more than a few hours at a time so that I have time to rest, manage my ME as well as the rest of my life.

I would fear that he would miss me, but there are so many of us in the family that it's truly a rarity that he's left on his own.

I decided to start the week with a visit and was happy to see that, despite his sore legs and his new developing tendency to forget things, he seemed considerably more chirpy this week than he did the last. Often, when there's too many people in the house, Grandad slips out of concentrations and consequently the conversation meaning that I don't actually get to talk to him all that much at all. Today though, with my little brother in the bedroom watching TV; it was just me, him and my Mum.

I decided to bite the bullet and ask him if he would let me shoot some portraits of him one day. It was always something I wanted to do of both him and Nan and now that I've lost that opportunity, I want to make sure that I don't lose another. He seemed happy enough to help me, since I pitched it as exactly that ... he would be helping me practice portraits and he'll do anything for his family. We also spoke about the war; a conversation that you can only have with someone like my Grandad.

It seems, though, that my fatigue from yesterday has carried on a little through to today but it doesn't seem like I'm the only one. My elder brother, his partner Wendy and my niece Isabelle popped in for a little while, Isi was all smiles and dimples but she, too, looked like she was a little tired like me.