You have probably all read that famous poem: if not then I recommend you do as it's a poem that often comes to mind for me.

It was exactly a year to the day that my Dad passed away when I wrote this. I've dealt with it. However, he could still have been here today if he had not been depressed and taken a corner too fast in his car while not wearing a seatbelt. That occurred the April before and he slowly wasted away in hospital and died possibly of heart failure. His wife (Cruella Deville) never told me - she didn't out of spite. She was always jealous of me. In particular green with envy that my dad and I were very close at one time. When I was a kid, back in the old days. I was his favourite and his constant companion on his milk round at weekends and school holidays. He had no time for my brother, but that's a story for another time.

I realise now that he suffered from depression or bipolar disorder which also came down on me like a ton of bricks when I was 32 and my husband told me something that I could not deal with. Consequently, life was never the same again for me or the family. If he had realised how lucky he was he would never have fallen off his pedestal so hard. And neither would I. It happened; that's life you deal with it. But I did'nt... very well that is.

Thirty one years later; I have learned that I am a nice person and that friends are the folk you choose to be with and be thankful for. I've earned their respect and their support and I'm grateful to them for loving me as... I am.

And the parents?

Well, they do F*** you up. They don't mean to but they do.

I still have my Mum. Bless her; 89 in August and is still walking around the village daily and sharp as a tack. Sad though as she has a 'glass half empty' approach to life and living and has always been negative in her outlook.

However, I won't get started on her either. Its's too late in the day.

Maybe that's a story for another day too!

RubyRed

A Moodscope member.