For those of you who might have wondered where the hell I was… I’m back! I took some ‘time off’, not intentionally I must say, but because I just didn’t find the time to write and take pictures for my blog and because my world was turned upside down for a while… Read on to find out what I’ve been up to…

During the summer months I was busy working or going on trips, attending family gatherings and enjoying the hot weather. It was actually too hot to spend my free time behind my desktop so I blogged, but a lot less than I used to. I did keep up writing my travelposts though.

Then September came and my husband and I went on a fabulous trip to the Provence for 8 days. It was the first time since we had kids that we went on a holiday just the two of us and I must say we had the time of our lives. We thoroughly enjoyed our getaway and the Provence was good, fab and lovely as always! No doubt I will spoil you all with lots of travelposts in the weeks to come.

After our holiday, it was straight back to business. It was busy at work and every night we had appointments and things to do. We really didn’t know what to do first and every night I was glad to see my bed 🙂

September 27th approached, a day we had been looking forward to so much as it was my best friend’s wedding and she had chosen me to be her maid of honour. The night before the big day I went to bed early, only to be woken up a bit later on to find out my dad had been rushed to hospital… My mother, sister and brother-in-law where all with my dad in hospital and they assured me that I didn’t have to join them, but it was very though just waiting at home… I felt guilty, anxious, sad and so hurt!! I just couldn’t lose my dad just yet!! Fortunately they could stabilize him a few hours later.

 

When I called my mum the next morning, she assured me he was stable and that I should go to my friend’s wedding. But I was in doubt… how could I be merry and glad at my friend’s wedding whilst my dad was fighting for his life in hospital?  On the other hand I couldn’t leave my friend in the lurch as I was her maid of honour. I have never felt so torn in my life I can assure you!

Luckily my father was strong enough to fight, he was stable the entire day. I could squeeze in a short visit to the hospital after the wedding ceremony and after another reassuring phone call from my sister, I did manage to have a good time at the wedding reception/diner/party.

My father had to stay in hospital for 2 weeks. He still has a lot of follow-up examinations the coming weeks and I’m sure he will still need some time to fully recover, but at least he’s home now. Let’s hope he will be his old self really soon…

During my father’s hospitalisation, my mum’s health deteriorated quickly. She had lost a lot of weight the last couple of months, but refused to go to the doctor. Now with my dad being in hospital, she realised she had to look after herself as well and she ended up being hospitalized. After a couple of days filled with tests and scans, the first diagnosis was extremely hard to take in… cancer of the stomach… But the results of several medical examinations were contradicting eachother so they kept on doing more tests and examinations… and finally we received extremely good news… my mother did not have cancer of the stomach!!! She had 2 very large and very severe ulcers in her stomach and a bacterial infection. She’s been in hospital for 3 weeks now and I hope she can go home soon. She’s so much better already than 3 weeks ago, but she still has a long way to go… they both have!

 

You can imagine that with all this happening I just couldn’t find the time and energy to blog, I just didn’t feel like doing it! But now I hope I can pick up where I left off. I hope I can find the time again to work on my content and I hope that I find the pleasure again in blogging!

We all had a wake-up call, not in the least my mum and dad! I hope they both fully recover and that they take this second chance with both hands!! I sure hope that we can have them in our lives for many years to come…

Love, Kathleen