Well here we are, 2 months completed already!
I've thought a lot about wealth this week, and what it can mean to different people.
There's financial wealth (I should be so lucky, I had to take medical retirement when I was 43 - 10 years ago now)
There's a wealth of possessions - in my case it would be books, shoes, handbags, and, more recently, camera gear
There's having a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of creativity, a wealth of friends, a wealth of well, wealths.
But my wealth comes from none of those things. I have one thing in my life that is worth more than money, and, if you want to avoid the personal history bit, scroll down NOW .....
My wealth is the wealth of love, support, and understanding that my husband Reg gives me.
It's been a complicated journey for us over the last 18 years. We were both married to other people when we met (unhappily married as it turned out), and I'd already been married and divorced before. To cut that particular long story short we were living together 6 months later, divorces were underway and we were planning to get married once they were all sorted.
We both changed jobs that year and were financially secure and we moved from the little terraced house I'd bought into a new bungalow. We didn't know at the time but that was an inspired move. Our divorces were finalized and in September 1992 we were married on a tiny little island in the Seychelles. Everything was perfect, we just felt so right together (and still do, just in case you were wondering
)
4 months later I had a recurrence of what had been described a viral infection of the nervous system a year before so I went to see my GP as I wasn't well enough to go to work. He was filling in the 'sick note' when he stopped and asked me if work knew what the problem was so I just said yes. When I looked at the condition for absence from work it said Multiple Sclerosis.
To be fair I didn't respond with shock or despair. At that point I was just glad to have a diagnosis as I'd had all kinds of weird and wonderful symptoms going back to 1989, and, at one point I'd been referred to a psychiatrist as my GP at the time thought I was depressed and a bit of a hypochondriac. Well I was depressed, but I was depressed because I felt lousy but didn't know why and couldn't seem to get close to an answer. So my initial reaction was relief, and Reg was great with me. We'd only been married a few months so I told him I was still under guarantee if he wanted to trade me in, but he just took it all in his stride.
Now, many years and many symptoms later (I'm sure they'll be incorporated into a picture story at some point
), including having all my upper teeth removed because of persistent toothache in 1992 - toothache which I still get because it was caused by trigeminal neuralgia, for which I've had 4 neurosurgical ops, lots of high dose intravenous steroid courses, and an overwhelming fatigue which feels like jet lag most days, Reg is still here.
He is strong for me, he adores me, tells me I'm gorgeous every day, and would do absolutely anything for me. I love him to bits and when he asked me what the theme was for this week and what was I going to do for it I told him I was going to take a picture of him because he was worth more to me than money, he got a tear in his eye. So here I give you Reg, my Wealth
but that's hardly surprising is it.
, but I'll be back........
