A bad day and being lucky.

Sometimes you have those days where you really just wish you hadn't bothered. Friday was one of those for me. 

It started on Thursday night, in fact, when I discovered that my Mum's partner had been scheduled to have surgery. She is currently undergoing intensive chemotherapy for Stage 4 cancer, which has currently spread to three separate locations in her body.  My initial response was: Surgery? That's a positive sign. That means the tumours have shrunk enough to operate. Unfortunately, only two of the sites are responding. The other, the lungs, stubbornly refuses to respond in any way, shape or form. So my fleeting hopes were dashed again and my heart broke as I watched the mixed emotions flowing across on my Mum's face. I could see her allowing herself the hope that I had just written off.

Friday morning brought more awesomeness, in the news stories about the legislation around requirements for reporting of abuse of children. There's a whole separate blog post on that topic to be written, at some later stage, but the thoughts of the impact that the legislation would potentially have had on my family are a little scary. To top that off, I got a call from my Mum to let me know that it was looking like our dog was dying, which, if you read my previous post, you'll know came true over the weekend. And then I had to go to work. Ick. I wish we could have Fridays off when we felt like that!

The sum of all those factors was an overwhelming dose of the Glum. This year has been a trying year, at times, and days like Friday sometimes make it feel like it's all too much to bear.

I am, however, lucky. I am surrounded by wonderful people. People who, sometimes without even realising it, help me to fight the glum off, before it can take hold. The small things that these people do make the world of difference. The hug from a Jonelle on Friday afternoon. The little message from Iz in my inbox. The sitting at Alex's bar with ET, downloading cat pictures and giggling hysterically. The fleeting visit from Rob for a giant hug, whilst on the phone, on Friday, and then the driving lesson, tea session and dumpling fest on Sunday. The random funny and cute pictures from Jackson. And the lovely ongoing messages from Bee. Including the one the arrived just now, wishing me a better start to this week.

Despite everything. I'm very lucky, indeed.