RIP Uncle Roy

It is with great sadness that I have to announce we lost Paul’s Uncle during the early hours of Christmas Eve.

December has been a very busy month with my husband’s Birthday, Christmas parties and from the 20^th a Wedding, a birth, a death and my nephews 16^th Birthday on Christmas Day.

Paul has been suffering with a bad cold over most of this month which unfortunately resulted in him having an epileptic fit so that spoiled a lot of his birthday plans as he was so tired L It really has been a challenge and I know that as a person I have come a long way as I didn’t get depressed or overly upset and that really is something worth celebrating.

However, no matter how busy we have been it all gets knocked into perspective when you are told your Uncle is in hospital and in a very bad way. It was made worse that we could not visit as the hospital was closed due to the Norovirus. We had a call on morning of the 23^rd December to say he was very ill and unlikely to make it. We rushed to the hospital and it was like a ghost town. Normally you have to struggle to park and the hospital is bustling with people visiting and personnel going about their normal working day. We had to wear a plastic apron and rubber gloves before we could go into the ward and only go in one at a time.

This was only the 2^nd time I have seen anyone who was dying and it was really upsetting. When Paul’s Grandad was going he was very peaceful and unfortunately in this case that was not so. It was obvious he was in distress, he had gone blind earlier in the week, could not talk anymore and seemed to be trying to tell us something. I found it very distressing and could only stay in there for a few minutes. We all stayed at the hospital for 3 or 4 hours and then Paul and I went home as there was nothing else that we could do.

We both had sleepless nights and I got up at 3.30am and pottered around on my computer. We found out later that Roy died at 4am on Christmas Eve and thought it was weird how we were both wide awake at the time.

Christmas has been a very subdued affair. I haven’t even put up my Christmas tree this year which is unheard of as I love decorating my tree. For some reason it just seemed like Christmas represented a lot of hassle this year and my heart wasn’t in it. I feel that intuitively a part of me knew something wasn’t ‘right’ this year.

This card I gave to Roy’s partner Sarah who stayed with him right to the end. It had initially been made for one of my team mates on One Stitch At A Time as we all got together to make a digital condolence book for her. It was made quite a while ago but has been on my desk for quite some time. Most of my cards get blogged straight away and then put in a box but this one hadn’t, again very strange……..

Anyhoo this last few days has again put things into perspective. I am living for today, enjoying every minute I can and wearing my ‘best’ clothes instead of saving them to gather dust in a wardrobe as you just never know when your time is up.

Materials Used in this card are as follows:-

Card Size – A5” Square

Image – Sunflower Collage by Gingerloft

Sentiment – Freebie from McMahon Five Designs

Paper – Mariposa Stack by DCWV

Embellishments – Decorative paper strip by Papermania

Tools – Distress Ink pad, Letraset Promarkers & Flexmarkers, Quickuts Cookie Cutter Die

Techniques – Distressing, Diecutting

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-

• Aud Sentiments  – Any Sentiment
• Catch the Bug – Use a Border
• Challenges 4 Everybody #10 – Anything Goes
• Crafts 4 Eternity #103 – Anything Goes
• Delightful Challenges – Anything Goes
• Digital Tuesday – #191 Layers
• Diva’s By Design – #66 Anything Goes
• DL Art Thankful Thursday – Anything Goes
• Flutterby Wednesday - #220 Open Challenge
• Hiding in My Craft Room #77 – Anything But Christmas
• I Love Promarkers - #148 Anything But Square
• Lady Anne’s Stamp Challenge – Anything Goes
• Little Miss Muffet  - #51 Anything Goes
• Make It Monday –  #120 Anything Goes
• My Heart Pieces – Anything Goes
• Outlawz Monday Card – GCC1224 Anything Goes
• Papelitos Challenges – #24 Anything Goes
• Paper Crafting Journey – Anything Goes
• Paper Makeup Digi Makeover – #68 Anything Goes
• Party Time Tuesdays  – #100 Anything Goes
• Pink Elephant  - #180 Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp – Anything Goes
• Simply Create – #15 Anything Goes
• Stamp n Doodle – Anything Goes
• Stamping For The Weekend #24 – Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin’ – Seeing Double (2 Sunflowers)
• Through The Craftroom Door - #50 Anything Goes
• Totally Gorjuss #163 –Easy Does It
• Tuesday Alchemy - #46 Anything Goes