Tell us a 'memory' if you wish to ?

gezzathorpe said:

My first son was born at 23 weeks and was not really viable and so we took the decision to take him off his life support system. My second son was born at 26 weeks, had heart surgery and became blind before he reached the age of '0'. Then, a year later he became more and more ill until, finally, Great Ormond Street diagnosed AIDS due to contaminated 'live' blood given by a gay drug-addict just after he was born. He died at 18 months. My ex-wife then spent her final pregnancy flat on her back in hospital from the 20th week of her pregnancy, and we finally ordered our third son early at 37 weeks as the long wait was doing our heads in. He was born with forceps and with a knot in his umbilical cord but all was OK. He is now 27 and a fitness instructor for the Nuffield Group. Three months after his birth, my ex-wife had a hysterectomy.

It's amazing how one discovers what others are experiencing after such things .. it puts one's own life into perspective.

Apart from that, not a lot has happened really, or at least things I would admit to!! :shock:

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Gezza,I know we've had our disagreements on here but I'm very sorry for your loss of your children and the pain you and your wife must have gone through during all that..very glad you had a happy outcome with your 3rd son...Best wishes Paul/Tubs

paul-1976 said:

gezzathorpe said:

My first son was born at 23 weeks and was not really viable and so we took the decision to take him off his life support system. My second son was born at 26 weeks, had heart surgery and became blind before he reached the age of '0'. Then, a year later he became more and more ill until, finally, Great Ormond Street diagnosed AIDS due to contaminated 'live' blood given by a gay drug-addict just after he was born. He died at 18 months. My ex-wife then spent her final pregnancy flat on her back in hospital from the 20th week of her pregnancy, and we finally ordered our third son early at 37 weeks as the long wait was doing our heads in. He was born with forceps and with a knot in his umbilical cord but all was OK. He is now 27 and a fitness instructor for the Nuffield Group. Three months after his birth, my ex-wife had a hysterectomy.

It's amazing how one discovers what others are experiencing after such things .. it puts one's own life into perspective.

Apart from that, not a lot has happened really, or at least things I would admit to!! :shock:

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Gezza,I know we've had our disagreements on here but I'm very sorry for your loss of your children and the pain you and your wife must have gone through during all that..very glad you had a happy outcome with your 3rd son...Best wishes Paul/Tubs

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Thanks Paul ... much appreciated. Hankies at dawn, so to speak. My big discovery was realising so many people who were carrying their own tragic experiences around in silence. It's a pity it sometimes takes these experiences to open our eyes (or mine at least).

WeeWillie said:

Excellent thread with brilliant memories, great idea for a thread too anna.

I'd need to pluck up courage to delve into memories.

I'd a rough time as a young boy, right through into my teens and twenties.
My parents filled me with fear and apprehension which still hang around in the background.
What a legacy parents, even when their gone, can leave their children.

Ah, one thing, I always knew, when word came through informing me my father had died, it would be an overcast murky rainy day.
I was wrong, it was a glorious beautiful summer's day when I happened to be in my kitchen drinking a cool soft drink and looking out to our small garden from our open widow. The scent of flowers wafting in was a joy to behold I said to myself. Then the phone sprang into action destroying the peace and quite (which I always love).
It was my elder sister offering me the news, "that father had gone", it was a short conversation that day.
I sauntered over to the window while taking in the fact he'd finally gone. I decided, as it was such a glorious day, to go for a walk with our little dog. Me better half was at her dear old mum's house.
As me and dog wandered along the paths the breeze was so inviting, it was lovely. I just couldn't get over how beautiful it was that Sunday, I'd been so confident it would all be so different. And you know, without attempting any melodrama, with every step I took the chain links my father had me bound up in slowly began to break and fall with each step I took. Blimey, what a reaction to a death.

But that's the way it was. Sadly, the legacy I was left with still hovers in the background to this day, but to have the chance of relating it has been so beneficial for me.

Anna, thank you for this thread. x

I'm not going to re-read this, so please overlook anything unfathomable.

willie.

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I can relate to that to a degree Willie.
I was chucked out by my father not long after leaving school.
I had very little contact wih him over the years but in my forties and fifties he started to actually visit me which was nice.
We struck up a bit of a relationship for the first time ever but nothing of any import was ever talked about.
He died in my fifties and I felt nothing.
But I was fooling myself I did feel something.
What was it?
I sat outside the night of his funeral and drank half a bottle of whiskey and realised it was relief I felt!
I was free and had never realised I wasn't free all those years.

Had a recurring dream when I was about ten eleven.
I'd thrown my tennis ball onto the steep sloping slate roof and went up to retrieve it. Tripped started sliding down the roof grabbed the gutter which came away and I went tumbling down down down and woke just befoer hitting the deck!
I'd wake up bolt upright in a bit of a flap.
Must have had that dream half a dozen times and more.
Aged about twenty five I'm on a steep sloping slate roof fixing it.
Been up there about half an hour and just starting to move about with some confidence when memories of the dream fill my head and I drop instantly into a crouching position.
Climbed down the scaffold and made a brew.
Went back up and all was well. Fixed a few roofs over the years and every time the dream would come back on climbing up the ladder or scaffold ... just as a reminder.
Never came to any harm but the reminder made me extra cautious.

I remember this very well.
When I was 10 years old (in 1963) I was cyling along the canal towpath with a friend following me on his bike. I had a duffle bag around my neck with a small camping stove in it. My friend called to me and I turned in the saddle to see what he wanted. The duffle bag swung round into the handlebars and took me and the bike into the lock on the canal. Luckily the lock was full, if it had anything but full I don't think I would have survived. The duffle bag filled with water and I started to drown. I knew I was going to drown and I knew I was going to die. I started to say goodbye to each member of my family (I have heard of others in a similar situation also do the same). Inside I was very calm and not in any great state, but I also knew that my body was fighting for survival, it was shouting ans screaming each time I fought my way to the surface. Because I watched a great deal of cartoons I knew that when I had gone under for the third time I was a goner. I started to count and when the third time came I knew that was it. When I surfaced again I thought that I must have mis-counted and the next time must be the third. The next time came and went and I kept surfacing. It was at this point I realised that cartoon characters lied! That was a real blow! Anyway, a woman managed to pull me out and I was taked home by ambulance. My bike was found several weeks later a few miles 'down stream'. I was not allowed to keep it. I never had bad dreams about what happened, and I have been back to the spot and had a very nice meal at the pub next to the lock.
This is a newspaper cutting from way back then. I never met the woman who saved me.

And this is the pub. You can see the lock gates just the other side of the bridge.

Lee.

Lee that was some story.
Have you ever learned to swim. I love to be on boats etc; yet for some reason I am scared of the water and cannot swim. I have tried to learn but I become to panic far to much.
Roy,

izzzi said:

Lee that was some story.
Have you ever learned to swim. I love to be on boats etc; yet for some reason I am scared of the water and cannot swim. I have tried to learn but I become to panic far to much.
Roy,

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I did learn to swim, maybe even before my untimely dip, I just think the newspaper wanted a more terrifying story. I never had a fear of water or even the canal afterwards. I even got another bike some time later. For some reason I am not sure of I always named my bikes 'Claude'. I have a ballance problem now which means going on a boat or flying is something I avoid.

I understand how some things can bring on a panic attack. With me it was heights. I managed to overcome this over the years, but I now have to be very careful going up ladders or working on roofs.

Can you manage the shallow bits of water, or is it the whole experience?

Lee

Some truly remarkable and touching memories on here.

Thank you so much for sharing those treasured 'memories'. I have felt humbled by reading them.

From the bottom of my heart,

RRB X

lrw60 said:

izzzi said:

Lee that was some story.
Have you ever learned to swim. I love to be on boats etc; yet for some reason I am scared of the water and cannot swim. I have tried to learn but I become to panic far to much.
Roy,

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I did learn to swim, maybe even before my untimely dip, I just think the newspaper wanted a more terrifying story. I never had a fear of water or even the canal afterwards. I even got another bike some time later. For some reason I am not sure of I always named my bikes 'Claude'. I have a ballance problem now which means going on a boat or flying is something I avoid.

I understand how some things can bring on a panic attack. With me it was heights. I managed to overcome this over the years, but I now have to be very careful going up ladders or working on roofs.

Can you manage the shallow bits of water, or is it the whole experience?

Lee

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It is only when I try to float or swim, I seem to panic. I always thought my Dad threw me in the water to learn the quick way. My sister told me this never happened, she said I stuck my own head under the water and frightened my self.(about 60 years ago)
That is more like me trying to put the blame else where.
Roy.

Saddened this week by the news of the death of one of the worlds finest horn players. Nick Busch. You'd have all heard his work, probably without knowing it. - as principle horn of the LPO for around 30 yrs and a session player in London, anyone who's ever watched a film is likely to have heard him.

Here is one of my favourite memories of him. - it's not a big memory, or an important memory, but, to me, this typified Nick.

On a recording session, everyone gets paid the same. But the stress, and sometimes, the difficulty, increases, the higher up the section you sit. A horn section usually has four players. 4th is low, and therefore not physically taxing. 3rd is a high part but isn't always needed and plays more of a supporting role. 2nd is often mid range but can be very difficult as you are expected to support the principle to the point of telepathy. The 1st (principle) horn gets to sit in the hot seat. The part is invariably physically demanding and can be really nerve wracking. You also have players of usually equal calibre sitting down the line, smugly playing the easy parts. - Session horn sections aren't like classical horn sections, where every one is a specialist and likes their seat. ( 'cept for 3rd, but that's a whole essay in psychology in its self!) session horn sections tend to be full of principles, taking time off from their orchestras and enjoying the bigger pay cheque! The first person to arrive, sits on 4th and the hot seat often gets left 'til last. - lesson in musical politics over!

I was a session horn player. The only girl horn player on the London session scene and the youngest by a good few years. I made it my job to get to the session as early as possible, so that I could sit safely on 4th. - the rest of the section tended to be my teachers, - in my view, the gods of the horn world, on 4th, I could keep my head down.

One day, there were a lot of Tube problems and I arrived later than usual, ending up on 2nd. Scary enough. Nick arrived with about one minute to spare, picked up the 1st horn chair and went and put it on the other end of the line, leaving me, just out of college, on 1st and the rest of the section rolling around laughing! Thanks Nick!!?

Nick Busch. A great horn player and a truly special man. Sadly missed.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

I remember not being diabetic and the week I was diagnosed being bombarded with loads of stuff, it was almost like a production line. Blood tests, urine tests, fasting tests, retinopathy and eye checks, meters, insulin, loads of tablets, it was really overwhelming. I'd been telling my doctor for months that something was wrong that I couldn't put my finger on.

I also remember being humbled after a touch and go operation two novembers ago. I had a blood clot that killed 2 metres of bowel/intestine. I had to have the dead section removed urgently. I was told to be prepared for a colostomy bag or similar, which put the fear in me. As I was drugged up on morphine, tramadol and paracetamol for most of my lengthy stay I wasn't aware of the implications and was amazed when my wife, girls, mom, dad, sister and brother in law were all there when I came around 2 days later. I later found out the opeation was complex and I had a 30% chance of pulling through as I was quite weak and my heart stopped beating for a period during the operation, no wonder I had no strength afterwards. Sobering thoughts indeed. I owe my life to my surgeon, who I look forward to seeing every 12 months, with a little gift from me and my family.

Makes you realise how fragile and precious life is and that we could all go if we stopped taking our medicines and insulin properly. I've been close before, I don't want to be that close for some time.

Love to you all, carpe diem!

Mart

This memory was bought to the surface recently.

In 1967 my dad bought a Transit mini-bus. We were quite a large family and it was useful for work. To help out financially my dad would often hire himself and the Transit out as a hire vehicle. If there was room for me, I would go along for the ride. One day we picked up some Americans who had booked us to go to London for a show. I sat in the passenger seat and the Americans sat behind us. One man was very interested in the Transit, which hadn't been on the market very long, and was asking my dad loads of questions. As we drove along I became aware of something touching my hair. It was an American lady sat behind me! I had very long bright ginger hair back then, very wild and woolly. I turned around to see what was going on and she appologised saying that my hair looked so great she just wanted to touch it! (I will post a picture when I get up the nerve. I'll show you mine if...) The American man speaking to my dad then explained why he had been asking so many questions about the Transit. His name was Henry Ford and he owned the Ford Motor Company. He was the grandson of the man who founded Ford many years ago. He had hired us because he wanted to hear first hand what an owner thought of the new Transit.

So, not only have I met Henry Ford, his wife stroked my hair!

H lrw60,

That is a great story,( I remember when transit vans first cam out and how easy the gear box came out for a simple clutch change, not any more.)
Like you I am into vintage and classic cars, Yesterday I was lucky enough to purchase a "austin healey sprite" which just needs a little work. It is not a vintage but it must be among the the classics.

best of luck.
Roy

izzzi said:

H lrw60,

That is a great story,( I remember when transit vans first cam out and how easy the gear box came out for a simple clutch change, not any more.)
Like you I am into vintage and classic cars, Yesterday I was lucky enough to purchase a "austin healey sprite" which just needs a little work. It is not a vintage but it must be among the the classics.

best of luck.
Roy

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Love to see a picture Roy. I nearly bought a Morris 1000 van recently (a pickup with a van body and newish chassis all in boxes). But I have decided to spend my time and money re-restoring my A7. I now need to dig an inspection pit in my workshop.

lrw60 said:

izzzi said:

H lrw60,

That is a great story,( I remember when transit vans first cam out and how easy the gear box came out for a simple clutch change, not any more.)
Like you I am into vintage and classic cars, Yesterday I was lucky enough to purchase a "austin healey sprite" which just needs a little work. It is not a vintage but it must be among the the classics.

best of luck.
Roy

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Love to see a picture Roy. I nearly bought a Morris 1000 van recently (a pickup with a van body and newish chassis all in boxes). But I have decided to spend my time and money re-restoring my A7. I now need to dig an inspection pit in my workshop.

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Saw it on ebay and it was not to far from our village, burns at bit of oil ( But easy engine to work on) I offered £1200 and deal was accepted, I am well pleased I hope.(also needs a paint job if truth was told).
Roy,

Very nice! Good price too, I thought they went for a lot more than that. When we took Lorna's A7 out recently we put the hood down, and got very windswept! It's surprising how much more tired you feel after a run in a car with the hood down. If you're ever in Cornwall, let me know and we'll meet up somewhere.
Lee.

izzzi said:

H lrw60,

That is a great story,( I remember when transit vans first cam out and how easy the gear box came out for a simple clutch change, not any more.)
Like you I am into vintage and classic cars, Yesterday I was lucky enough to purchase a "austin healey sprite" which just needs a little work. It is not a vintage but it must be among the the classics.

best of luck.
Roy

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Classic indeed! :thumbup: Older vehicles are great to work on(except for the awful bypass hose on old minis and the timing chain) and remember my dad using a piece of broom handle as a clutch alignment tool on my grandad's car when the plates needed changing.

paul-1976 said:

....Classic indeed! :thumbup: Older vehicles are great to work on(except for the awful bypass hose on old minis and the timing chain) and remember my dad using a piece of broom handle as a clutch alignment tool on my grandad's car when the plates needed changing.

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I remember the bypass hose. It was much easier when someone invented the ribbed one that shrunk enough to just get on. I never did a timing chain. I hated working on a Triumph Stag so much that I started to take my temper out on the front wing with a lump hammer! The owner said he didn't blame me. That terrible engine. A terrible car. I am sorry if anyone here owns one. No, really, I am so sorry for you. ( :lol: )

To work on an Austin 7 requires at least a bicycle spanner. With two you can strip and restore the car in an afternoon.

lrw60 said:

paul-1976 said:

....Classic indeed! :thumbup: Older vehicles are great to work on(except for the awful bypass hose on old minis and the timing chain) and remember my dad using a piece of broom handle as a clutch alignment tool on my grandad's car when the plates needed changing.

Click to expand...

I remember the bypass hose. It was much easier when someone invented the ribbed one that shrunk enough to just get on. I never did a timing chain. I hated working on a Triumph Stag so much that I started to take my temper out on the front wing with a lump hammer! The owner said he didn't blame me. That terrible engine. A terrible car. I am sorry if anyone here owns one. No, really, I am so sorry for you. ( :lol: )

To work on an Austin 7 requires at least a bicycle spanner. With two you can strip and restore the car in an afternoon.

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Now your are going down that great memory lane.I will never understand how triumph stags are still around, no offence meant, even "e type" jags are a handful mostly rust.( the rear axle rubber mountings and door handles came from a austin 1100.)
When the by pass went on those bmc engines our boss told the customer that best have new head gasket. (will we ever get to heaven).

I was one of those mechanics in Dorchester.

Austin 7 is what I call a real vehicle, class on its own.

Roy,