Highs and Lows

Saturday night, and I'm with Lucie and Cameron in Lumijoki, just 40 km from Oulu in the north of Finland. It's cold here, but Lumijoki is the only place in the world where our family has real roots, so it always feels a bit like coming home.

It's been an eventful week in many ways, one full of highs and lows. On the low side I haven't been well for most of the week (an old illness back to haunt me once again) and today we're up in Lumijoki seeing my Mum. It's hard to believe that just a year ago my Mum was living independently at home with my Dad. A year later, Dad is gone and my Mum was struck with such sudden dementia that she no longer knows who we are. On the merciful side, as far as my mother is concerned, Dad is still sleeping in the next room, so at least she does not have to grieve at his loss. Dad would have been pleased at that, I know.


Anyone who has ever had a friend or relative with Alzheimer's will know that it is quite disconcerting to be physically with someone you know well, but who is there and not there at the same time. It's a cruel disease.

Still, there have been high points too. I loved meeting our Somero visitors on Tuesday, and later that afternoon I was in Helsinki where I met some inspirational new people whom I hope will become friends.

Later in the week we had several little bits of good news...and the squirrels have visited every day to keep me entertained while I'm sitting at my desk at home staring out the window.

Today we stopped in Ylivieska and met up with my old friend Minna. Minna and I met more than ten years ago in a court room in Darlington and were immediately bonded by our Finnish roots. We then spent the next five years in the UK fantasizing about one day living in Finland again. We used to talk about all the Finnish food we missed. Now we are both here it sometimes all feels a bit surreal, and of course now it's the other way round. We sit and talk about all the things we miss from the UK. Maltesers, Minstrels, Double Deckers, Chery Bakewells, sticky toffee pudding, custard, CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE.....  Who knows what the next ten years has in store.

There are bound to be twists and turns ahead. Good times and more challenging ones. But I guess all any of us can do is to savour all the good things and face the challenging ones as best we can. For my part, I'm going to bed tonight thinking of sticky toffee pudding, squirrels, family and friends, old and new. Because they are the things that have made this week good.