By the time I was forty, I had established a routine. I had been ordained an elder in the Church of Scotland in 1992; this took up even more of my time. However, I had begun to notice a detrioration in my mum's health. She began by suffering from depression, which gradually increased as the years progressed. Her increasing mobility issues due to the arthritis didn't help, and she spent more and more time indoors. Consequently, I took over more of the chores. This was so gradual a process that I could cope with it, and my own mobility and vision issues. However, I found myself having to spend more and more time with her, a, if left alone for an extended period, she would go into panic mode. Unfortunately, the depression developed into dementia in her last six months. By this time I'd been caring for her for nearly twelve years. After circulation problems, she had to go into hospital - where she broke her hip. The surgery was too much for her, and she died in December, 2009. I'm so grateful that she was still mainly in her right mind. On the day she died, we prayed together. The last words she ever spoke were "I love you." A great way to sign off and start the next part of her journey. So, I was alone...well, not really alone. I never lost that feeling of presence that comes when Christians are committed to Christ. I'd never really liked the house we'd lived in, so, only days after her funeral, I applied for another house. Things began to settle down....until, three months later, in February 2010, my remaining eye decided to have some fun. My retina detached. To get to it, the doctors had to remove a congenital cataract which was so thick they had to get special instruments made for its removal. The operation took five hours. I'm so grateful to the doctors: they managed to save at least some sight, but I now have no lens in my eye, and an artificial lens is out of the question. I was a bit apprehensive about staying in that big house, knowing that I could wait at least two years before a smaller one became available. That's when one of those coincidences which isn't really a coincidence happened. Just as the gunge had cleared from my eye, and I had some mobility again, this house came up for me. It's absolutely wonderful! small, full of storage space and a bus stop ten feet from my front door! So that's about it. I remain an elder in Church, and I'm trained and set apart to conduct worship. I'm in the middle of training to conduct funeral services at the moment, and I'm representative elder on my church Presbytery...a body which is marginally more boring than watching paint dry. Oh, and, I forgot. For twenty five years, I've been active in local politics, as a member of my local S.N.P branch. Jim. Jim PTL! Skype jim.liddell6