There I was, waiting with my daughter at the church café while my husband went to get his new bus pass. As it seemed he was taking too long I thought I would phone him to find out where he was. But as I did that, I got a shock to hear a paramedic on the other end of the phone telling me my husband had fallen backwards down the Townhouse steps and had a bleed on the brain. What a terrible terrible shock.
He was taken to the Victoria Hospital and so of course we had to go too. When we got there, we found he had bolts in his head – oh my goodness, you just could not imagine what was going through my mind. They said he had to go to Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. I was petrified, and I dared not think about what was going to happen next. But then I got another call to say they only had an hour to get him into theatre or we might lose him. I just went numb and told them to do whatever they needed to do.
When we got to see him next, I didn’t know what to think. He was in a coma and they said he was very lucky to be alive. He was lying there and still had the bolts in his head. I froze. I thought all sorts but I said to my daughter ‘there’s a reason for this’. At that time, we had not talked about ‘what if’ things. It was horrendous.
That was nine years ago. We still have up and down days and sometimes I don’t know how I cope with all of this, but what I have realised is that we must have hope and faith. This has made me a stronger person. You just have to keep going. You find the strength from somewhere, but I do not know where.
Nine years on and he is still with us. We have good days and bad days and strange happenings like spoons in the microwave which make it blow up! You see how hard it is, but there will always be hope.