DISTANT FRIENDS

Here we are at Centrepoint in Basel back in September last year
with Mark, Kevin and Christine

Tonight, (Saturday) we received a lovely phone call from dear friends Johnny and Bettina who live in Zell in Germany. Both have come from Ghana to live in Germany. Johnny was our special driver when we lived in Schopfheim and looked after us in many ways. It was so good to hear from him and we were a little overcome by his phone call. How lovely to be remembered by such special friends.

I also received a phone call from my dear and special friend Christine from Basel, and again I was quite upset, but managed to calm down and have a good chat. It was as if we spoke to each other yesterday.

Dear Kevin from Basel rang us last Saturday to make sure we were travelling okay. What a joy it is to always catch up for a chat. We are blessed to have such dear friends who still think about us.

We miss our distant friends. Each one is special to us in a so many different ways.

WE'RE GRANDPARENTS

Our beautiful tiny baby boys (Nathan Elliot 1.8kg) and Edward Peter (1.4kg) were born to Glenda and Tom (6 weeks early) on 1 July. They will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and are still in hospital in Melbourne. They will probably be there for another week or so. Both are putting on weight and doing nicely.

Glenda and Tom are coping amazingly well, as they travel to the hospital each day to be with the babies. We are so VERY proud of them both. We will get to cuddle our babies on 16 August when we arrive in Melbourne for 3 weeks. We can't wait. How lucky are we to have 2 tiny treasures. Glenda and Tom have been giving us regular updates and pictures. We won't share any at the moment as they are so tiny. But when we come back from Melbourne, I will be sure to post some.

Roger wants to be called Gramps and I am still unsure what I will be called. Nothing seems to suit. Maybe you had better give me some suggestions, especially those who really know me!!!!!!!!!

RIDLEY UPDATE

I keep apologizing for not keeping this up to date. I am finding it really difficult to write these days, but know I must try and keep it up. I do love writing normally, but when we are going through this horrible time in our lives, it isn't easy and putting things in writing just reminds me how awful it is.

I think I will keep Roger's Motor Neurone Disease quite separate from this blog and will try and update on MND on our http://www.rogngayn.blogspot.com/. That way I can update on what each day holds, so if you want to keep up to date, then go there.

Since Roger's birthday we have had quite a good couple of months. We have both been positive and trying to do lots of lovely things together and with our family and friends. We have settled nicely into our Church family at St Barnies, West Leederville and they are very supportive and loving towards us. We are particularly enjoying the friendship of the young marrieds, no children. Rog often goes off to watch the guys play Soccer on a Monday night and friends drop in and keep him company and amused, which is quite lovely.

I went to Melbourne for 6 days from 17 June to see our beautiful family. It was rather cold and wet, but good to see the kids and have hugs! To spend time with Glenda helping her to get organized before the arrival of the twins was lots of 'fun' as well.

When I arrived home on Thursday afternoon 23 June, Irene and Roger met me at the Airport and brought me home. I unpacked and then packed again for the 2 of us. We drove to my sister Jillian's farm at Badgingarra (3 hours) and stayed for 3 lovely days. It was divine. We had breakfast in the rotunda (glorious Saturday morning) and surrounded by Jillian's amazing garden. We had a good laugh at the CWA (Country Women's Association) annual concert when all the local areas come together to perform Choir items, etc. We have lost this in the city unfortunately. Jillian was a hit. She plays the piano beautifully.

We are slowly making our little home more and more cosy. We both love the kitchen. It works very well for us both (and I LOVE the dishwasher!!). Last Saturday we bought a couple of rugs and are very pleased with them. We still don't have pictures on the walls. That's a bit sad. But all in good time!! I am hoping to have someone look at the front 'garden' and give me some suggestions. It is so hot here in the summer, I am going to have to be careful what I plant out there. It is only a small area, so shouldn't have too many problems, but I do need advice. Also I don't want people to pinch the plants that we put in there! Yes, these things do happen.