May I talk to you for a while? I’m at home waiting for news, having been at the hospital all day. Lesley has had another operation today, to relieve some pressure that was making her so ill. It seems to have been a success but it is hard to tell yet.
I know I don’t know any of you at all, but she often talks about her friends on the board, and I know she enjoys the contact with you all. She is a great person. We have been married 22 years and she is still the most wonderful person in the world to me. She is kind and funny and clever and loving. She works so hard at her job (as a nurse in a nursing home for the elderly) and loves her patients - really loves them, and it shows in her care and when she talks about them. This despite the fact that she has twice been stabbed by a patient, and that this injury she is suffering from now was caused by another. She has never lost her faith in the goodness of people, although she is frequently surprised when they are less good than she expects! She is not naive - I don’t think any nurse can be - but she just loves and trusts people to do the right thing. And they generally do, for her.
I felt that this injury had ruined her life: she can’t dance now, and folk dancing has always been a hugely important part of her life. She writes dances, too, which are danced here in Devon and in our original county of Hampshire. She says that it has changed her life: she has developed new hobbies and interests and revived old ones. She has always played instruments, guitar, keyboard, whistle, mouth organ, banjo, mandoline, ukulele - anything she could get her hands on, really! - but because of her dancing and general activity she had not given them a great deal of time. She was always dancing, or teaching adults to dance, or teaching dancing in schools, or teaching overseas nurses, or training care assistants - you name it! Now she plays as much as she possibly can, and has been writing tunes for her whistle, or for flute and guitar. The only thing she doesn’t write any more is dances, as that makes her want to dance. Otherwise making music has filled the gap for her.
If she had not had this surgery she would soon have been unable to play, as her hands would have become worse and worse. Ultimately she would have become paralysed. She knew this and has accepted the risks of the operation(s) in the hope that she will be able to play again, and we hope to dance as well. We both know she may not. She is the most incredibly brave person I know, and I hope she is composing tunes in her medicated dreams! That would suit her down to the ground.
Thank you for letting me talk to you. The waiting is hard. I am writing down all your messages to give her when she wakes up. I know she will be so pleased. Please pray for her.
Roland (mr devondancer)
