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Reflections on a Winters Night

As the clocks turned back an hour and the nights are now darker, last night we went down to the Harbour of Torquay to say Goodbye to the HUGE wheel (Similar to London eye) we have over the summer months as she took her last passengers high to look across a great vista all over Torbay and will hope to see it again next year, shortly followed by a Fireworks display.

So there we sat, on a bench overlooking all the boats and yachts with hot chips in hand as the fireworks started. Just as the first few reached the limitless sky my mind wandered and suddenly I found myself in 1965, in the backstreet of Eden Street where I lived as a boy. I could see the makeshift bonfire roaring high into the black night and I could see the paintwork on people’s gates becoming a mass of seething bubbles. I could hear Mrs Cryer shouting her son Terry and watched in amazement as they brought tray after tray of Treacle toffee out along with Parkin Cake. Mrs Williams was there with her baked potatoes and then, the most important person in my life appeared with a HUGE pan of potato hash (Will explain later to all those who don’t know what this is.) It was of course my Beautiful Grandmother.

I could smell the ash and the burning wood, I could hear the crackling of wood as it succumbed to the glowing yellow fire that was consuming it, but most of all I felt loved, content and happy. These were times when nothing mattered, we had no worries, no fears and more importantly our world to come, the future, was right in front of us waiting to be captured in the blink of a child’s eye.

As I came out of my catatonic state and looked upwards I watched in amazement the beauty of the Fireworks display above our head. I looked across at Elaine, my Angel, my Darling Angel, and I am sure she was in the same place I had just been, Happy, content with not a worry in the world, and its times like this, no matter what’s going on in our lives I feel so grateful for all we have..

If I can remember such happy memories from the past and enjoy making new memories in the future, (it’s the bit in the middle I can’t remember because of my dementia) then life isn’t so bad after all.

Best wishes, Norrms and family
Diagnosed with dementia 7 years ago aged 50 and still fighting it xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx