Synchronicity (Again!)

On Thursday night, yes that Thursday night, I happened to be presenting a set of accounts to the management committee of a local politically affiliated club. The meeting had been arranged before the date of the General Election had been set. Anyway on the drive home from the club, some half an hour away from where I live, I tuned into the rugby programme on 5Live.

Before I go into details I have to point out that since speaking to my Dad last Friday and discovering he had gone blind, without warning, in his left eye, I've felt pretty unsociable. It's had an affect on me that's difficult to put into words, I think its what the Portuguese call saudade, which is not readily translatable - and I've probably used it before somewhere.

Anyway back to 5Live. The programme was dominated by the story of Clarence Harding and it made uncomfortable listening, which is exactly what it should have done. The background, the story and the aftermath are told here and I should warn any readers that the photograph of Clarence is not for the faint hearted. Clarence told how the incident had changed him overnight from a young man with no worries, a good job, forthcoming marriage and amateur rugby player, to somebody who is having to adjust to life without work, no rugby and a changed perspective (no pun intended) on life.

I sat listening to this story unfold and could feel my body shivering as I realised that his experience was exactly what my Dad was going through, minus the rugby and it was difficult to hold back the tears. By the time I arrived home it was too late to phone my parents and so on Friday, still buzzing after only three hours sleep in the previous thirty six hours, I phoned him. He sounds puzzled, which is to be expected, but also strange, strange because even when he has made mistakes or done things wrong he's always been confident, yet this time he wasn't. He told me again about how it had happened, about the frustration, and, like Clarence, about the lack of perspective. In his case he had dropped two glasses after washing-up, simply because the kitchen unit was further away then he thought it was. The good news is that checks on the arteries and blood vessels leading to the other eye appear to be healthy, he has another hospital visit planned for Monday and next week, would you believe, they are off to Snowdonia for a break.

We'll be going to visit them on their return, hopefully he won't fall off a mountain due to lack of perspective!