26 August 2014

A Bit of a Wet Day

It is like autumn here wet and cold. While stopped at Hanna's this morning on my bike ride it started to rain, but I was also overwhelmed with grief and close to tears, which I have been one way or the other all day. 

When I got home I spent some time on research in the Internet. Firstly looking for suitable camper hire offers for my USA trip and also looking for suitable maps of France which show the St James' Pilgrim Path. At around 3 o'clock I went to see the secretary of a certain Lung specialist that had been treating Hanna over the last 4 years. The specialist had prescribed a very expensive drug called Volibris which Hanna had to take every day and costs over 100 euros per tablet. We had a quite a number of these tablets left and the specialist had asked if we would donate them for some of his patients where the Health Insurance doesn't pay for such treatment! I had gone along to do just that. It was also the second time I had gone there. The first time they were closed.

This secretary had her back to me as I came in the room and when I addressed her she was visibly irritated and demanded I wait in the waiting room until she was finished with her task. I was a bit taken aback but went and sat down. Now of course I also had a time problem as I was due to collect Christopher to take him to his first lesson of the new Music School Term.

I was a bit upset. Not just because of the way she spoke to me and being made to wait, for an action that would have taken less than a minute to conclude, but because I had sat in this damn waiting room with Hanna every three months for the last 4 years, and now I sat there all alone! I was here to do a good deed I thought! I lasted only five minutes and would have wept had I stayed longer, so I left. The first thing Christopher did was ask if I had forgotten about him, as I was now later than I normally would have been!

In the car on the way to the Music School Christopher was a real tonic and after dropping him off I wandered around town until it was time to collect him again. On return to my own home before entering I went to the bakers on the corner to buy a piece of cake for tea. My mind was clearly somewhere else for I never took much notice of the woman at the counter before me. I stood trying to decide what sweet thing I should pleasure myself with at tea, when I suddenly became aware that this woman was looking at me.

It was a bit embarrassing to discover she was a good friend and one of my former students. It was nice though to chat to her about her recent holiday in England with her twins and to hear how much they all enjoyed it. 

Maybe tomorrow will be a dryer and better day.

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