In Sickness and In Health

[rhythmaning]

Oh dear. Today was meant to be a day to celebrate – the start of something new: the first day that my wife wasn’t going to work, because she is now working parttime so she can spend two days a week painting rather than teaching.

She was very excited about today. Sure, she spent much of yesterday painting, and the day before as well; but yesterday was a holiday, and before that, the weekend. Today she would have been at work, but since she has now gone parttime, in a job-share with a colleague returning from maternity leave, this was her first day painting – not a holiday, not a weekend, but a day painting.

And paint she did, she said; until in the afternoon, she went down with a migraine. When I came home, she was lying in bed in a darkened room; really, really unwell. And there was nothing I could do to help her – except be as quiet as possible.

It isn’t much to ask – just be quiet. But I don’t do silence well: when I am home, the radio is on, or I have CDs playing, or… I can be quite loud – noise is something I am good at. So I was wearing my walkman-radio whilst I cooked for myself, trying not to bang pans or plates; and now I am sitting wearing headphones, listening to the hifi. (It is lucky that when I got the headphones – which I rarely wear; the last time was a long while ago, when I wanted to listen to some music whilst my wife wanted to watch some programme on tv – that I deliberately got cans with a long flex, so I can move around the whole of our spacious sitting room unhindered.)

I took up cat-duties, cleaning their trays, feeding them, playing with them – and shushing them when they whined to be fed, played with, and let out onto the stair (they don’t go outside, though they could; we spent a long time last year trying to get them into the garden; but they like to leave the flat, wander around the common stair for a bit, hiss at the neighbour’s cat; and then after half an hour or so, they wander back in, and demand a treat).

It is hard, though, not being able to positively help her feel better. It is a long time since she last had a migraine – a few years ago whilst we were on holiday in Lewis, as a huge storm blew in off the Atlantic; and there was nothing I could do then, either. (Indeed, I think I resorted to listening to music on my walkman, reading so as not to disturb her.)

So instead, to celebrate my wife’s new start, I have found a couple of images of her paintings, which I have put on Flickr. These are old paintings – they each hung in our sitting room for a long while, and I am very attached to them. (Ages ago – when I started writing this journal – I promised my wife that it would be anonymous: hence the reason I haven’t named the artist!)


This picture was painted near the Famine Village in Inishowen, Donegal.





This was painted at Borve, on Lewis, looking west over the Atlantic.

Comments

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor her. Horrid.

I need to talk with you about the pics. When is your summer holiday? Can you be in your native city for one of the last two weekends of July, and if so which one?

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Wow, July? I hate to say this, but probably not - we are away from Sat 22 to Sat 29 July - though we should be around Sunday 30 (if we aren't flying straight out to Washington - a long story!).

Let's talk - when we next talk! (With our blanc cassis!)