22nd October...time flies

I write this for the last time at my dad's lovely little cottage in west Cornwall. It has been a tough slog, but dad has finally found a home that he likes and so will no longer be returning here. My half term began on Friday and since then I have been restoring and emptying this home ready for tenants to move in.

Although I have begun on a sombre tone, I'd like to say that things with dad are much more settled then they have been for a long time. He is happy and, while he is not making massive progress, he is at least comfortable and in pleasant surroundings. He is in a home where he can see and hear the ocean and he is well looked after. He has his big screen tv, his desktop computer and his electric wheelchair as well as 24 hour care and support. He doesn't feel lonely anymore. Having said that, he'd still be more than happy to receive visitors, so if you are going to be in Cornwall, please feel free to drop me an email for his address and pop in for a visit.

As things stand, I will close this chapter of my dad's blog as it is expected by both the doctors, carers and by us, his family, that dad will not make any massive progress, but hopefully he will not get significantly worse either. Of course I will let you know if there is anything significant to report, however since August he has simply moved from hospital to home and become settled. I very much look forward to knowing that he is safe and that I won't need to spend 10+ hours a month travelling down to check on him.

I have been furiously packing and have rediscovered all of my dad's writing notes from the book, along with a vast portion of family history from his mother's side. I have decided that I am going to make Harry's sister Kate part of my history teaching in my school since I share her name - I would like to spend a lesson with my Year 5 (9-10year old) class asking them the question "who was Catherine Lamin?" starting with the sampler which hung in my childhood home and confused a much younger version of myself since it was made by someone with my name, but who was clearly not me. I think it would be a good way to understand women in the Victorian era, although, of course, Catherine was born nearer the end of Victoria's reign. Nevertheless, there are a large selection of artefacts, including photographs of her father, of her and of the rest of the Lamin family. I hope I can help the children in my class to really understand what life was like 120 years ago using my family as an example.

Anyway, thank you again for all of your support over the last two years and hopefully, from here on in, you can all assume that no news is good news :)

Catherine

PS I apologise to about 5 or 6 people who replied to the previous post, I somehow pressed delete instead of post to the comments and can't seem to recover them! Please forgive me, I am very tired!!!!