A Reason to Celebrate

Please note: this piece contains descriptions some readers may find upsetting.

Before I can tell you about why we celebrated, I need to give you a bit of the back story.

A few months ago, my beloved husband Victor suddenly became so seriously ill that, for a while, the doctors didn't think he would survive. At first I thought he had suffered a stroke, but the hospital soon changed the suspected diagnosis to an infection of the brain. At the time, I was too busy coping with hospital visits and keeping the family informed and staying calm and positive to dare to think beyond the present moment.

A friend of mine once told me that when her son was in a terrible car accident that she had prayed for "complete restitution", but instead of her prayers bringing him back unharmed, her son had died at the scene of the accident. Still, I prayed for complete restitution too, not wanting to even contemplate the possibility that my husband might be permanently affected by his illness.

I was allowed to sit by his bedside for 6 hours in the intensive care ward, holding his hand and talking to him while his eyes were open but unfocussed. He was twitching and distressed (that's another medical term, apparently,) and didn't know I was there. After two days of being what medics call virtually unresponsive, he suddenly and unexpectedly regained full consciousness. He was completely unaware of what had happened over the last 3 days and wondered why I was crying! Later that day he was moved into a normal ward and because of the covid regulations, I was no longer allowed to visit. From then on, he recovered very quickly but had to stay in hospital for nearly two weeks while they took him off all the drips and made sure he could cope back at home.

My husband has now totally recovered; the doctors never quite pinned down what it was that he had or what had caused it. We are very very thankful for the wonderful treatment he received, and now that lockdown restrictions have relaxed, we have been able to celebrate not just his homecoming, but also seeing the grown up children and grandchildren again.

When I started thinking about what to write on the topic of celebration, I hesitated at first to tell this story - because my husband is still here, when so many people have lost their loved ones during the pandemic. I feel huge sympathy for them, but I also hope that you can share some of the relief, the pure joy, and the wonderful feeling of permanent celebration that I have because the love of my life is still with me.

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