Jane's Blog

Well, I think it’s time to reveal our mystery guest. For those of you who were at Leeds University Dental School back in the late 70s and early 80s, it was a picture of our good friend, John Roberts, who was on the same course as us whilst at University.

It was delightful to see John when he called round the other evening, and today we had another lovely time when Judith and Dina called – Judith bringing an afternoon tea of scones and clotted cream (which brightened up the boys’ afternoon no end, I can tell you!), and Dina bringing an arrangement that she had done of freesias plus other beautiful flowers, making the house smell wonderful. We are very lucky indeed to have such thoughtful friends.

Dina is to the left of the picture, Judith to the right, with me ‘un-photoshopped’ in the middle!

Proving that it’s possible just to have a little too much of your Mother’s DNA, this (above) is Michael wearing my wig (not so sure that he meant the ‘thumbs up’ now that he’s seen it though!): as opposed to this (below), which is Michael freshly scrubbed and out of the shower, and with his more ‘natural’ hair state!

And

It’s not many folk who receive a set of World Cup Football cards from their Medical oncologist, but Dr H and I had a good chat earlier this week – mostly about the football, it has to be said – and just today a package arrived from her with some cards in it, as she knew the menfolk in the family wouldn’t be interested in the World Cup, but that I was. What a cracking woman!!

A face from the past ‘dropped by’ this evening to say hello. No prizes for guessing who, but maybe one or two of my friends from Dental School days will know who he is. No time to photoshop my complexion today, so I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with the ‘yellow’ look this time!

In and amongst the various hospital appointments of the past few weeks, I’ve had several friends who have been kind enough to come and visit me.

At the end of January, Jane (Holt) and Peggy, members of the H&T department at LDI, came along and brightened up my Saturday afternoon with news of what was happening at work. First we put the world of dentistry to rights, and then moved on to archaeology – at which point a flint knife and my bronze sword appeared, as examples of what I used to do in my spare time. Jane and Peggy were also introduced to Sona and Charcoal (our chinchillas), having heard a lot about them when I was at work. The boys were on their best behaviour, and thankfully didn’t chew anyone’s shoes!

Last Sunday saw the arrival, from various parts of the country, of Judith, Anne, Dina, Faith, Peter, Diane and Sue. We spent a splendid afternoon reminiscing and chatting, and then devoured the buffet that Paul had prepared for us. James appeared in time to help eat the food, and he also set up the TV so that we could view all Diane’s photographs, taken whilst on holiday ‘down under.’

(Apologies to Sue as she arrived after the photos were taken).

Many thanks to everyone who is kind enough to set aside some time to come and see me.

We welcomed ‘home’ a very dear family friend at the beginning of November. Annie was born here but emigrated to Canada when only 5 years old, and hadn’t been back in almost 40 years. However, when she got the news that I was terminally ill, she immediately arranged to come and visit us for 12 days.

This coincided with Bonfire Night, and we all went to a bonfire and fireworks display held at one of our local churches. Annie was shown round the interior of the church by one of our friends, and then we enjoyed the heat from the bonfire and the splendid fireworks. Thankfully the weather was kind to us, and we managed to escape the heavy downpours which had been predicted for the evening.

A few days later, we met up for another ‘girlie get-together’, this time kindly hosted by Diane. So as not to be ‘exclusive’(!), this time we were joined by Paul (Gregory) and Paul (Hyde). Delicious food (including Banoffee Pie) was again provided by Diane, Dina, Judith, and Sue, and a thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all. Many thanks once again to everyone for making the effort to be there, and especially to Diane for her hospitality.

The following week we took a trip over to Haworth, home of the Brontes. The weather was beautiful that day, so Annie saw the gorgeous Yorkshire scenery at its very best. After a pleasant drive, we parked by the Parsonage and visited the church first before enjoying the delights of afternoon tea in one of the many tearooms which adorn the main street. We then took a tour of the Parsonage, which I remember from a school visit there in the early ’70s. I was in Bronte House, which meant a regulation visit to Haworth and the Parsonage to enhance the necessary school project on all things Brontarian (if such a word exists!).

A few days later, we drove to Harrogate to meet up with some of Annie’s English friends, Janet and Mike, whom Annie and her husband Art had met whilst on a cruise. We had arranged to meet with them, plus Dina, for lunch at Betty’s in the centre of Town. Paul was duly dispatched to queue (no bookings can be made), whilst Annie and I enjoyed a good catch-up chat in the car. We then had a delicious lunch before retiring back to Dina’s house to enjoy all the cakes that she had bought from the shop. Many thanks to Dina for looking after us so well – a lovely end to a lovely day!

Having been gently reminded that the blog is still here, and I have been failing in my duties as a blogger of late, a bit of good news after the grimness that was September.

Paul and I were presented with our first great-niece, Seren, on October 2nd. Daughter to Kirsty and Rich, and first grandchild for Jayne and Alan (Paul’s brother).

We raced up to Yarm to see the happy family the day after she was born, and the photo shows Seren (with her very proud great-aunt!) at less than 24-hours old.

And in case you were wondering about the title of this blog, Seren means ’star’ in Welsh

What a wonderful weekend of parties!

Last Friday evening, Faith, Dina, Diane, Sue and I went out to celebrate my birthday. We went to a local Italian restaurant, where we discovered – very bizarrely – that there was another Jane Gregory having a meal there, and Sue almost ended up with the wrong party! Thankfully, the girls didn’t subject me to the ultimate humiliation – wearing a hat with candles on whilst being serenaded (if that is the right word) by the rest of the diners! A lovely evening, and so nice to see everyone again.

On Saturday, Paul and I were invited to Jane Rowbotham’s for afternoon tea. Jane (for those of you who don’t know) is one of the Principal Tutors in Hygiene & Therapy at LDI, and had the misfortune to be the first person to be saddled with me when I started at the Dental School.

After a slight ‘incident’ on the way across (Paul had to do an emergency stop, so the bottles, which had been happily sitting on the back seat moments before, suddenly found themselves smashed on the floor), we arrived at Jane and Peter’s to find that most of my colleagues in H&T were there with their families. Jane had thoughtfully arranged superb weather, so we had a lovely afternoon in the garden, watching the children play whilst chatting away. Very many thanks to Jane for providing all the food and drinks – especially my surprise Birthday Cake – and to everyone for being there.

On Sunday, we had arranged to go for a meal at Cubley Hall near Penistone, with several friends. This was both a belated birthday meal and also a ‘farewell’ meal for Michael, who leaves for a year in Japan this week (Wednesday). The food was typically superb, and Jill had made and decorated a second birthday cake for me, so there was more singing and blowing-out of candles. A fantastic way to end a wonderful weekend – my heartfelt thanks to everyone for making it so special

Well, despite the very best efforts of Ondansetron and Cyclizine, I still managed to end being in my forties with my head in a bucket. Ah well, at least it was memorable!
This morning I was dragged from my bed by the early arrival of the District Nurses. After a cheery welcome of ‘Happy Birthday!’, they proceeded to change my syringe driver.
After they left, I weighed up my options and decided I might as well stay up rather than return to bed, so spent the next few minutes happily opening all my cards.
Very many thanks to you all for your good wishes, cards and presents – and, of course, to Peter for singing down the phone to me!

[This is a retrospective blog, as there's little chance of me creeping home in the wee small hours at the moment (I've been in dreamland for ages once midnight arrives). However, I wanted to post about the Thursday before my operation as it was a special time, but have only just got around to scanning in the photos that were taken that day.]

Thursday June 11th – Faith arrived from Oxfordshire in time for lunch, which we shared with my mum whilst reminiscing about our student days. After lunch, we drove to Castle Hill, where Faith unpacked the kite she’d brought with her (at my request). There’s almost always a breeze at the top of Castle Hill, and today was no exception, so we didn’t anticipate any problems as far as kite-flying was concerned.

And, indeed, once we got the wretched thing airborne (no small task in the blustery conditions, with me at one point asking Faith if she was trying to kill me as the kite dive-bombed me for the umpteenth time!), everything was plain sailing.

After an hour or so playing with the kite, we drove to the place where I used to do a lot of my running – an idyllic spot by a river, with trees and the air full of birdsong, where we sat and chatted in the sun.

Making our way back home, we changed and drove over to Leeds to meet up with several friends from our year at Dental School. This meal had been arranged at incredibly short notice by Diane who, having been to see me four days earlier, had suggested a meal ‘with the girls.’ I pointed out that it would need to be later that week, and just two hours later received a phone call to say it was all arranged. Brilliant!

It was one of those evenings where you think to yourself afterwards ‘Why don’t we do this more often?’ We caught up with one another’s news, changed places so that we all got to talk to each other (throwing the waitress into confusion in the process), and generally had a lovely time. We stood up to leave at around 11pm, but it was another 30 minutes before we actually managed to say goodbye and leave for home.

Having seen Di last weekend, plans are now afoot for us to meet up again, this time for my 50th birthday in September (and hopefully before my next round of surgery).

So, huge thanks to Di for arranging it all, and also to Faith, Dina, Judith, Jane and Sue for taking the time to be there. Thank you, ladies – it was a very special day.