This morning we went to go and visit my mother for the first time in 8 years and introduce her to her great grand kids who she has never met. My mother is not well and this was the need to bring the entire family over in one go and kind of forget about the costs. Family comes first and there is no price on family. No one knows what tomorrow might bring and why we must do the most whilst we can and never put off for another day.
We spent a good few hours with her before giving her a break as this is overwhelming and exciting at the same time, but she cannot over do things. Reading town center is not that far away and we popped on down to the shops for a few hours and had a bite to eat.
I know this area fairly well having been here for 3 weeks back in 2015 when I came over for the Rugby World Cup. The most problematic part of the day was finding parking for the vehicle we had hired as most places have 1.85m or 1.9m maximum height clearance. I am 1.95m tall and the van is taller than me jus so if I had to guess it is between 2m and 2.05m. We found a shopping center that had a 2.1 m height clearance and even then expected to hear the scrape, but it was fine.
After lunch we spent a few more hours with my mother who perks up when the kids are around and this was the whole point of the trip. We know she is not going to get any better and the more she does the weaker she gets so we have to also manage the time. This is very sad really because my mum was so active before she was diagnosed with MND last February. Basically this disease shuts down your body systematically and there is no cure.
This part of the river is known as a Swan sanctuary which is pretty cool seeing how many Swans and Geese are here.
This afternoon I took my grandkids and family down to the river to go and see the Swans and Geese to give them a break. Tomorrow there is a Bastille day fair happening in a park close by and we plan to spend the morning there before going to see my mum again.
I have promised my grandson we will be going to Lego Land on Monday and will try and squeeze as much as possible into each day along with seeing my mother in the morning and afternoon. We fly out to Paris on Wednesday for 5 days to actually feel as though we are having a break. This is all about my mother for the first 5 days and this is what is important.