Remembering The Importance Of Gardens

Back to almost normality today. My friend Ruth will be arriving soon and we are off to the cinema, it’s a sunny day and I’m writing this in the garden 

My garden has had praise recently from many of the locals, positives I passed onto Janet when I saw her last night at my birthday meal. 

It’s a sanctuary of peace, not too neat and tidy but ordered in its own way. 

The honeysuckle obscuring the front door, is 

Flowering as the little hazel and oak saplings thrive in their pots ready to

be planted around the village 

Gardens are a haven, and I’m lucky to have one that works for me, and I’m reminded of just how important your own little piece of garden can be to a person

The memory

 Patients with facial tumours can be a challenge to look after . Not only can tumours bleed and bleed badly, but they can cruelly infiltrate soft tissue, and bone snd cartilage  obscuring airways and the ability to see, speak and communicate .

They also mask personality, create shame and allow fear to grow and patients can find themselves hiding away in side rooms and at home, out of sight and out of mind. 

The student I was working with asked for some “advice” with one such patient  and after a moments reflection I told her that we had two vital weapons in our arsenal.

The first was the fact that the patient had the most beautiful blue eyes, 

“Focus on those lovely eyes” I told her, in any procedure , in every wobbly moment , 

Focus on those eyes”

And the second I showed her and the patient together.

It was a gloriously sunny day and I turned off the door alarm in the patient’s bedroom and opened his patio door wide into a private garden filled with agapanthus, roses, rosemary and honeysuckle

“ I can go outside whenever I want “ the patient said quietly, hands stretched into flower beds, their voice suddenly rather emotional and I replied “ of course you can” as the student nurse gave a watery smile as she grew a few years older.