The year is flying by....

..into double figures tomorrow! Yes, the Cadbury's creme eggs are in the shops already. Yuck, I really don't like them. But I have been known, when desperate, to eat the chocolate off the outside..then you are left with a sticky mess in your hand..ok, too much information...

Had a quiet day at work on Friday and went to bereavement counselling in the afternoon. I walk into the room just fine (mostly). I tell her I am ok. Then where do those tears come from? Buckets, and about so many things. She is a good counsellor. We can have a laugh too, which is so important in counselling, don't you think?

Crummy weekend. The best bit was not going to church on Sunday but instead going into the office with a carpet cleaner and scrubbing the carpets clean..for one and a half hours..how sad, I really enjoyed it! James and Hilary came over Sunday, and the three of us watched a DVD..Mr & Mrs Smith....as James said after, what a silly waste of two hours...absolutely..so many holes in the plot, I drove them mad saying, 'Oh, that wouldn't happen...' and I was told off for taking it too seriously. I do like watching mindless rubbish that is vaguely believable....

Tonight I went to see an old friend, someone who came to me for counselling for three years, between 1996 and 1999, when I worked as a therapist at a Family Support Centre. She did so well, turned her life around so much, and I always had a soft spot for her, and a lot of respect. All my other notes from that time I shredded, but I always kept my notes of 95 sessions with her!! We saw each other from time to time, but I had not made contact with her all last year, not being in a good place myself. Bless her, she rang me to see if I was ok, and told me she was writing about her life. I told her I had her notes and asked if he would like them. Somehow I always knew that one day I would give them to her.

One of her children died, three years ago, aged 3, after two years of illness and brain damage after a tragic accident. Not surprisingly she has struggled to come to terms with this, as well as all the other baggage from her life...tonight we just sat by the light of a candle, with two cups of coffee and talked for three hours. About life and death, coping and not coping. I have given her the book, containing notes of those three years. We talked about it, and she does want to read them, and wants to see how far she has come. We hugged and I drove home. I wait to see what she says when she's read them. She is amazing, a survivor of all that life has thrown at her, and a fighter. I lvoe her.