On Thursday of last week Tove, my wife, and I flew from Tirstrup Airport in Denmark to Stansted Airport in England. From there we drove a hire car for about 3 hours northwards. We arrived at my parents house, my old home, in Caistor, Lincolnshire about 4pm that afternoon.
The reason for the, long overdue, visit was that my father has been ill - he developed heart problems and has been in hospital to have a defibrillator fitted. He came home the day before we arrived.
On the evening we arrived he did not look well, but thank goodness he has improved very slowly each day. It is, as I said, a slow process but it is going in the right direction.
The biggest problem for him is that he must rest and he is a very active man. He finds it irritating and frustrating that he cannot get up and do things like he did. My father is 82, my mother is 81.
They are coping very well, and they have the support of many, many wonderful friends and family. However, they are very independent and are not good at asking for, or accepting, help.
It can be frustrating for me to be so far away at this time.
What was really good, and also interesting, was the strength of the local, informal, community. This network of friends is there when needed, but not intrusive. The network exists as a web of informal and interpersonal relationships that ignores the socioeconomic roles that the specific individuals in the network have. I would like to study this more.
It was also very nice, and nostalgic, to visit the house that had been my home from the age of 14 years. And to take a drive around the Lincolnshire countryside I knew so well. The countryside that, in some ways, made me who I am. But it was not just the countryside, but the social network and 'culture' of that specific place and time that made me who I am.
We came back today. Leaving Caistor at 2am today and driving back to Stansted, where we flew back to Tirstrup. We both enjoyed the trip very, very much. It is a little stressing to return to daily working life again.
Here are a few photographs of people who are very important to me.
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