Decisions decisions - In the name of Thiago - Day 37





It’s been a busy old day with one thing and another, which as a summary tells you virtually nothing but is unfortunately a reflection of the nervousness I have at discussing anything that takes place where most of us spend a third of our lives.

One thing I can discuss though is the continuing dilemma that my father provides. As I was fully focussed on the walk in the blog yesterday, I never got to mention that my Dad had had another of his funny turns. It just keeps seeming to happen.

Angelica and I have just finished having a very open chat with Dad about our concerns. I’m supposed to be going away with Angelica and Elisa to visit my aunt this weekend and frankly we’re worried about doing that now. I really want to see a big improvement in my Dad and as yet I’m not confident that this will happen. His problems are mental as much as physical is what we’ve quickly realised and it will take time to improve that side of his health.

Dad gives me reassurances that he’s on top of it and that I shouldn’t worry but well you know how this works. The fact that I’m a natural worrier anyway probably doesn’t help matters!

After yesterday’s 15 miler, I can honestly say that I am feeling pretty good today. I felt like a sack of shit when I limped through the front door yesterday but my recovery has been full and impressive even if I do say so myself. I am considering another walk to work this week and I’m also planning on playing tennis on Wednesday evening so the Gibbster is definitely looking to get back on the road both figuratively and literally.



Storm Ciara has definitely given Elisa a bonus start to the week. After Angelica had been to register Dad to our GP and then been to have some bloods taken for herself, the snow came. Knowing that opportunities like this have been pretty scarce lately, the girls went to nearby ‘Bunny Hill’ straight after school and had a right good time of it as you can see.

I was feeling a little despondent earlier as donations have just slowed up for my walk so I’m going to take some of the beautiful little felt hearts that Angelica has been painstakingly making at home for the last week and see if I can flog a few at work ahead of Valentine’s Day. Our old neighbour Mel is joining the production line tomorrow for an afternoon at least so we are stepping things up on that front.

As I’ve just told you that donations have slowed up a little, it would be very remiss of me not to point you in the direction of how you can put that right. So here you go folks: www.virginmoneygiving.com/ChrisGibbs9

Until tomorrow folks..



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting through the pain - In the name of Thiago - Day 1

Image
You know how it is. The kids are going back to school, work has reared its ugly bastard head and you start to think what am I doing? Well if there’s one thing that the death of your child does: it’s focus the mind. My name is Chris, I’m married to a wonderful lady called Angelica and have a beautiful daughter called Elisa, who has just turned 11. But I’m also fat and worse than being fat, I’m feeling fat and frankly I’ve been doing very little to alleviate the weight gain for quite a while. But you know what, I’m going to give myself a break because my beautiful boy Thiago (the gorgeous lad in the picture) died at the end of November and we only buried him a week before Christmas. He was a week shy of being ten months old when he checked out and ever since, I’ve been an absolute fucking mess. Every day is racked with emotional pain. I start the day crying, I end it crying and in between well you can probably work it out. So I thought to myself, what can I constructively
Read more

I have no words (Stone to Royal Stoke University Hospital) - In the name of Thiago - Day 286

Image
  I'm going to level with you here straight up. I truly have nothing left in the tank to offer you tonight. I have been completely blown away by everything that's happened. I cannot even offer you the now well established line of sarcasm. I barely have the energy to fucking swear. The well has run dry. And this is why. I walked up towards the children's hospital entrance at the Royal Stoke today and I was greeted by this sight. People lining the streets to greet me. But they weren't just lining the streets, they were applauding. Loudly. I will probably never experience anything like this again but you know what, I'll have this memory for the rest of my life. I was completely overwhelmed. As many of you will know, it is not a common thing for me to be lost for words - it's not a terribly helpful trait for a broadcaster - but today I was truly gobsmacked. These people in their scrubs are the real heroes: the heroes of our NHS - probably the greatest organisation t
Read more

Thank you and good night - In the name of Thiago - Day 330

Image
  For the 330th and final time - at least in its daily format - I will collate my thoughts and feelings of being a grieving father.  When I think back to early January,  I really had no idea how this was going to pan out. But today, nigh on a year's worth of blogs later, I'm allowing myself a smile. On the 8th January when I decided that if I was going to do this blogging thing seriously that I had to commit to doing it daily, I knew that it would be tough but then I also knew that walking 350 miles (which I thought would 'only' be 280 miles at the time doh!) would be a very tough challenge too.  The two challenges have run parallel to each other all year and it is with a heavy heart that I say that the time has come to call it a day for the time being. But it's the little man in the picture there that we all have to thank for the existence of this blog, the fundraising I've done, the rediscovery of my joy of writing. All that walking for quite a fat lad like me
Read more