Which I have to say is pretty okay at the moment.
After working at the local High school for over 35 years, first as a caretaker, then teaching assistant , then behaviour support and now running the wellbeing department for the last 5+ years, I am about to semi retire. I will be working just two days a week in wellbeing. Not sure how easy this will be yet but I am SO looking forward to spending more time with Hubby ( who is already just working two days now) and being able to spend time being creative and hopefully travelling a little.
A bit of history :
I started to work at the school in 1990 2 months after my son died from leukaemia. I HAD been about to start my training to become a nurse , after working at the geriatric hospital next door to the school. As soon as my son became ill, I gave up work immediately to look after him . We spent a lot of time in hospital and eventually after a month or so we were told that he had a veery rare type of leukaemia that young children do not usually get , in fact they only knew of one other child in the uk who had had it.
There was no treatment available at the time, just to monitor and manage with weekly visits and the occasional stay in hospital. Most of that time is a bit of a blur now and I do not know how we managed - especially financially , as hubby had to have time off to take us to and from hospital and to look after Natalie who was 5 and just started school.
Our beautiful boy died on July 1st in Mayday hospital Croydon. We had gone to visit my sister for an early birthday as we knew he wouldn't make it till September.
He died on the day that he chose he would be three.
He name was Cavell Thomas Jones . He was names after Derek's dad , who in turn was named after the nurse Edith Cavell.
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I could not go back to the hospital and did not want to train to be a nurse anymore
I have always felt at home where I work in the school, the caretaking job served me well, after losing Cav, I did not really want to talk to people, I wanted to be alone to process my grief and learn to live without him.
I eventually had two more children and they helped so much. They were ALL a handful and after quite a few hospital, clinical and psychological appointments, we learned that between the three of them , they had : ASC, OCD,ADHD, Tourette's Syndrome, Dyspraxia, Speech and language problems, Epilepsy and type 1 diabetes and learning difficulties. we were BUSY!!
I became a teaching assistant specialising in additional needs ( I had had a bit of experience) after 10 years. I then realised I liked helping the children who were classed as "Naughty" - My problem solving skills learned from my own children helped. I stayed there until just before covid when the school wanted isolation and wellbeing ( we were doing both) separated.
About that time the school became a big bigger and they reshuffled the team system about as we needed more . They introduced 7 teams , named after famous people who lived locally including CAVELL ( after Edith Cavell).
My son's name is now all over the school - WOW and yes I belong to team Cavell although not many people know why.
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My children are now 30, 32 and 40 years old and are all doing really well - I am so proud of what they have coped with and continue to cope with. They are all lovely caring polite humans who seem to be happy 90% of the time.
We are off to visit the youngest , who moved in with her BF 6 months ago and have not seen ( apart from facetime a daily calls ). She is doing amazingly well but we do miss her.
I think that's enough for now.
Back soon possibly with pics of new tattoo booked in November.
Love Sue xx
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