41) Is this it or is there more 13th July

 

Since June last year, I have been reluctant to book any holiday or go anywhere for fear dad becomes worse or passes away while I'm away. Family and friends etc can see the pressures I have to deal with and all have said I need a break. I've missed the ski season now so I can't do my main stress relief thing by hammering down a snow covered mountain. As I have a family of 5 adults (2 in uni), holidaying abroad is expensive. So, for the past 5 years we have hired on of the narrowboats above for a week and cruised down one of England/Wales many canals. Kids love it (OK they're young adults) and it's family time we don't often get together. It's relaxing as the boats only do about 4mph and all there is to do is chill and read and operate the occasional lock while chugging down the canal - perfect! Usually!

Everyone told me - Iz! you should go! So, with a lot of thought (well at least a bit of thought), I went. After all he'd been diagnosed over a year ago, what could possibly go wrong?

As it happens - a lot!

It works like this; We hire a narrowboat somewhere in advance. It is usually 6 berth, this is fine for the whole family - 4 real beds and a convertable pull out jobby when you convert the couch... like sleeping on bricks but hey ho, - go with the flow - it's only a week. We drive up to the marina - usually 3 hours drive away, with 2 cars - we need 2 cars with the luggage and the family. This year there were 6 of us as our son took his girlfriend along.

We park the cars for the week, load the boat and off we go for a week of gentle narrowboating. We sail for 3.5 days, find a wide bit, turn around and sail back the same way, 3.5 days. Simple.

However...

On day 2, I got a text, forwarded from one of the ladies at dad's church. The minister had been to see dad and had given him the last rites, prayed with him, and recited a psalm - sounded a bit - well a bit of a big step. The minister had asked for details to be forwarded to me and Ant. Again nothing from the hospital - wasn't this a huge step?  I worried. I Googled. People can have the last rites but remain alive for a few weeks or even in some cases recover completely. It didn't sit right with me though. We were now about 25 miles from the car and pointing the wrong way. 

What if...

I couldn't speak to mates - I was on a boat with very little signal for my phone and even less wifi. My family told me to chill. 'It'll be fine.' they said.

They were wrong!