Visiting Dad 18

So while I was in Bounds Green yesterday (Monday) helping Ian Densham to lay cable for the computer system in the new library and receiving the books as they came up from Chiltern Street I had a phone call saying that my dad had taken a turn for the worse and that my sister had been called from work to the hospital. So I drove down to Pontypool and spent the rest of the day there.

I didn't rush there so I must have arrived in Panteg around 3 pm (I came via the Membury services [where there was a fire alarm just as I was leaving] and the old bridge once again - the wind was quite strong). When I arrived my sister Gail was at my dad's bed with her daughter Vikki. He certainly did look worse and Gail said that the night before they had thought he was gone. My dad slept for most of the time I was there but did stir a little between six and seven and we managed to get some blackcurrant squash into him. My dad's brother, my Uncle John had arrived about an hour before that (yes, John from Penperlleni). He's always a breath of fresh air so we chatted about everything and everything for while and he tried to rouse my dad. one of the things that came up that I'd forgotten and that I should have mentioned when I did that post about the old Severn Bridge was how when it first opened my grandad arranged with the local bookmaker (Derek Pugh) a coach trip to see it. He also moaned about how noisy people are and the way that people swear in public, etc. There was also a story of being in school in the fifties and being told that people in the northern hemisphere were all bigger and superior. When he had noted that Zulus were hardly small people he got a good clouting.

So I headed back this way. My dad has spent much of the day with dad today too and if anything he's rallied a little. We need to be patient again then.