Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 94 Comments

When dreams fade

The pre Valentine onslaught is in full swing. One advert claiming to have the perfect gift for my partner, every base covered….. Really – every base?

I’ve always been a daydreamer. As a child dreams of football, cricket, astronauts and mountains dominated. They gave hope. The years went by and still I dreamed. Dreams of happiness and a successful career. Then I met my partner and the dreams changed. Suddenly dreams focused on starting a family. Then our son was born and dreams shifted to happy family life. Few years further passed and it became more likely no more children would arrive – again my dreams shifted. Now they were dominated by images of us happily growing old together. Walking hand in hand. Sat together in Parisian cafes. Sharing new experiences in new lands. Dreams and hopes intertwined. Then the world suddenly changed….

Now I live in the moment, just focused on the practicalities of the day. When I daydream now (very rare) these are entirely focused on our son. Dreams involving me have gone. When I look – nothing. They died with my partner. No happy thoughts of growing older. Just the deepest blackness. I have heard this phrase used before. Living our lives through our children. It is so true. One role.

One day I do hope my daydreams return. Some things don’t change. I am still a daydreamer at heart.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 73 Comments

Put in my place

The directness and purity of autistic children is a blessing. It certainly puts you in your place….

I told a really bad joke and got no reaction. So I told it again but this time started to explain it.

“Dad just stop. You don’t need to repeat it. The greatest artists and musicians never copied their masterpieces, they moved on to new ideas. Never repeated themselves.”

After a few seconds of silence

“Dad in no way am I saying you are a great artist or musician. The phrase can apply to others as well”

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 76 Comments

Made up

Today I was thinking about how nice it would be to have some colour in the garden again. I tried to picture some flowers. The flowers I could see in my mind were last years plants. Couldn’t imagine any new flowers.

Our son’s school does ask the kids to do an awful lot of homework. Too much really. One of his assignments was to start putting together his autobiography. Red flag alert. This is a recipe to just reopen old wounds. Son was equally apprehensive. So I contacted school and expressed my concerns. We agreed that rather his own biography he would come up with a fictional one. As his hand is still not fixed I was going to scribe his thoughts.

“Ok I am in my 70s”

“I was born in the South of England”

Good start.

“I like music”

“My best friend is called Keith and he also likes music”

“I have another friend called David who I often share clothes with”

Not sure where this is going.

“I joined a band with my friend Keith”

“We played our first concert in 1962”

This sounds a bit like Mick Jagger.

“Well it is Jagger”

No you can’t use him, it’s supposed to be made up.

“Oh, Ok.”

“I am middle aged and I am a lecturer”

This sounds more like it.

“My father is very religious”

“I am an archaeologist”

“I’m scared of snakes and I am also an adventurer”

By any chance does he go looking for the Holy Grail.

“Yes, how did you know?”

Because its Indiana Jones. You can’t use him.

“Why he’s made up”

You just can’t use him, make one up about a child not a famous adventurer.

“Alright can I be an 8 year old boy”

Yes much better

“I am a bit cheeky”

“I live with a large family with many kids. I have a really annoying older brother and uncle”

“I am always getting shouted at”

This will make an excellent biography.

“Every Christmas my family go on holiday but they always forget me, so I am home alone”

Deep sigh…. Fine you win, you can be Kevin….

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 75 Comments

Cheesy Music.

I came across this story this morning

https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/02/rock-and-roll-themed-cheeses/

Aldi is going to sell some limited edition music themed cheeses.

Sweet Cheddar of Mine – Guns N’ Roses

Pour some Gouda on me – Def Leppard

Wake me up before you Goat Goat – Wham

Thank you Aldi I should be focusing on a payroll spreadsheet and now all I can see is cheesy song titles.

Let it Brie

Go your own whey

For whom the baby bell tolls

I Stilton haven’t found what I’m looking for

Brie quick or Brie dead

Smoked Gouda on the Water

American Cheese Pie

Abbots Gold Rush

Another ADL Brick Cheese in the Wall

Jumping Chilli Jack Flash

Chocolate Stout Cheddar Symphony

Halloumi of the Mountain King

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 51 Comments

What works

Anxiety, sadness and fear. Three words which unfortunately are too often near the top of our household vocabulary. Along with fart, burnt food, turn the music UP, where’s the remote, sorry I forgot and Dad you Muppet.So what have we found that actually works for both of us. Here are some of the winners.

5,4,3,2,1

We have found that this technique is really good at taking the edge off panic attacks. It doesn’t work on any underlying problems but buys some time. At the first sign of increased anxiety:

Think of 5 things you can currently see,

Think of 4 things you can currently hear,

Think of 3 things you can currently touch,

Think of 2 things you can currently smell,

Now do 1 large breath.

The Sweetie Jar Oracle

If our son is going through a period viewing the world through unhappy filters we start the Sweetie Jar Oracle. Find a large clear jar and a bag of brightly coloured sweets. Not sure about the rest of the world but in the U.K. smarties, fruit pastilles or Skittles work well. Sort out say the red and yellow sweets. Then identify one of the colours as good and the other as bad. Then over a period of a few days, maybe a week start to fill the jar with the appropriate coloured sweet every time a good or bad thing happens. After a few days hopefully you will see more good sweets than bad sweets. This usually convinces our son that although bad things do happen, good stuff happens more frequently. You can then eat the sweets….

Good Memories Store

We have an old small suitcase which we use to store good memories in. It’s full of old photos and handwritten notes. Every time we remember a good memory I write it down and put in in the suitcase. When times are bad we can then dig out the memory store and hopefully receive an instant boost to the soul. Has the added advantage of making sure you don’t forget those all important wonderful moments in time.

YouTube

Just losing himself in a YouTube documentary works somedays. I remember one occasion when he had an awful day at school but after 45 minutes of YouTube watching he was a happy little bunny. Worryingly he had found solace in documentaries about Caligula. What happened to Peppa Pig…

Wheelbarrow Train of Pain

Talked about this in a previous post. It stops my sudden urge to punch the wall with frustration. Basically load up a wheelbarrow with heavy stuff then push it round the garden. The number of circuits depends on the severity of the frustration.

Lego

Found that building a Lego set really helps take our son’s mind off his anxieties. It’s also good for his fine motor skills. It’s often frustrating for me as it just reminds me that I never got round to buying the Star Wars Death Star Lego set. Now it would be cheaper to buy a real Ghostbusters Proton Pack and get Bill Murray to personally deliver it to us.

Trampoline

Almost everyday on his return from school our son heads for his trampoline. 20 minutes later many of the frustrations of the day are put to the back of his mind.

Late night dog walking

Walking the dog never really helped our son. He was often too concerned about bumping into others. We would be having a happy conversation but suddenly someone would appear on his radar and he would be lost to anxious social thoughts. Almost by chance we then found the delights of night time dog walking. At night no one is about in our village. We have the fields and lanes to ourselves. Now it has become an excellent stress reliever. We frequently use the walks to plan out in detail the next days schedule.

Bad things league table

Every so often we run the bad things league table. We both list all the things worrying us. We then work together to rank them in order of how much pain they are causing us. Points are awarded for the severity of the issue, it’s frequency and how difficult it is to solve. It quickly identifies the stuff we need to focus on or prepare for. Because it’s done as a league table our son finds it easy to talk about and work with. For the issue which is the league winner we then spend a few minutes working out a couple of actions which might help knock it off its top spot for the next league table.

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One of the activists 100% guaranteed to raise our spirits will feature in the next post…

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 60 Comments

Bereavement and Aspergers

Death is inevitable but so so tough to comprehend. It’s hard for a grizzly mile worn traveller like myself to cope with, what on earth is it like for someone so young. Especially when it’s now 5 major deaths in 4 years. He’s only 11.

My son living with his Aspergers finds comfort in routine and orderly plans. Bereavement doesn’t fit into this ordered and planned world. Suddenly the world shifts, things are never the same again. This complete paradigm shift seems to manifest itself as shutdowns in his processing skills. His fine tuned memory becomes vague and unreliable. Concepts and principles become just random jumbled images. Simple tasks become complex nightmares. All he can think about is that the world and his happiness will never be the same again. Completely lost in this alien world.

Another aspect of Bereavement is a sensory one. Our son constantly fights to control and deal with all the sensory inputs flooding his body every second, every minute, every day ….. hardly ever receding. He has talked about death ramping all these sensory inputs up several levels. Suddenly the noise in his head is louder, he can feel the heart pounding, his skin is oh so much more sensitive, the unsettled stomach becomes a whirling vortex. He is trying to understand death while coping with this sensory storm.

When Bereavement occurs so many worries resurface for our son:

  • Fear of his own mortality. Suddenly every cold, every encounter with an unclean surface, every bump, every cough is a potential path to death.
  • Fear of his Dads mortality. No backstop, no second parent. Images of sad kids in cold foster homes like Harry Potter or strict Victorian orphanages flood his mind. How many movies have this as it’s premise.
  • Fear about losing special loves he will encounter in the future. Is the safest option to just shut the world out.
  • Bad things keep happening so they must be the norm in life.
  • Is it me. Am I to blame for this.
  • I just can’t find order and rationalise things anymore.
  • You learn to love, you learn to trust, then it is gone.

I think that final fear underpins everything. Trust in life for our son is hard to establish. He works so hard to build those bridges. Death smashes those bridges, breaks his hard fought trust.

We have started the healing process. Recommenced all the stuff which has helped in the past. But each time it happens the path to recovery becomes longer and more difficult.

The irony here is that this post is about our son (my only focus) and yet those last two lines (without thinking) are probably about me.

We now try to move on. The motto we have adopted is ‘each morning we dust ourselves down and go again’. Next post I will talk about some of the stuff which helps our son. More uplifting. More humorous. It has to be that way.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 44 Comments

Tell The Story Challenge

Thank you to Sadje for the Tell the Story Challenge . “Write anything that comes to your mind in regard to this picture.”

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She wanted to live forever. Avoid death at all costs. Every living moment focused on that goal. All consuming. All pervading. Her wealth and all her energy spent on her personal holy grail quest. Friends shunned and family scorned by a pathological obsession. No scientific or mythological stone left unturned.

But when the end inevitably came. What was it all for. A fools gold prize. Body turned to dust. A life ultimately wasted in the desire to prolong it. No fond memories created . No legacy built. Her clothes and a book are all that remained in the end.

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I am tagging

Crushedcaramel

Baffledmum

pensitivity101

If you fancy having a go then have a look at this picture and see where it takes you.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 131 Comments

Life is a pile of crap somedays

Some days life is good. Somedays it’s a pile of crap. Often it’s full of unwanted coincidences.

Seven hours ago I was writing a so called humorous post about our naughty girl cat.

Four hours ago my son was sat with Daisy on his lap. The two have always been close. She helped get him through his mums death.

Then out of the blue a brief seizure and she left us.

Yes a naughty girl but much loved. Yet again son is dealing with death. Yet again a parent lost for words. Today life is crap.;

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 26 Comments

Random Acts of Kindness – pets included

Thank you to Mws R Writings for the RAKA nomination. You are very kind.

The RAKA rules are:

  1. Copy picture for the award,
  2. Make an acknowledgement to the person who nomnated you.
  3. Write a paragraph or bigger to explain an act of random kindness, you have witnessed, done, or received.
  4. Tag and nominate others
  5. Make sure to tell those who have nominated, that you did.
  6. You can post pictures of random acts of kindness even if you do not want to write anything,
  7. Thanks for participating and making this world a better and thankful place.

Pets can participate as well.

Last night our house had two cats and the mad dog slouched in front of the fire. The dog then got up and trotted to his basket. He fetched a small teddy bear and brought it to the girl cat – dropping it next to her face. He then ran straight back to the basket, picked up a well chewed toy bone and similarly placed it this time next to the boy cats face. Finally he fetched another well loved toy and this time slouched back in front of the fire and started to happily chew. Where did that come from. I was stunned watching it. But that’s one of my Kindness nominations.

My second RAKA happened at the last Newcastle United match I went to with our son. We walked out of the stadium and towards the metro system (the cities Train system). At the escalators a random middle aged man just handed his football programme to our son and just said “there you go kiddo” and then just walked off to catch the train. Completely random and very kind.

Third RAKA is another pet related one. A marathon runner came across an abandoned puppy. She picked up the dog and carried it to the end of the race. She tried to find the owners but failed. Finally she adopted the dog.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/marathon-runner-carries-abandoned-puppy-19-miles-to-finish-line/

Nominations

I’m going to tag anyone who has a Random Act of Kindness to share. Thank you.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 36 Comments

No Text Book Grief 2

A friend (emergingfromthedarknight) posted a comment about my earlier Grief Expert tirade. To paraphrase she talked about my mum loving squirrels and the fact that you sometimes read about loved ones returning and their spirits appearing in animals.

I remember reading a similar thing. The one I read was about a widow. Her husband would spend his free time stood by one particular tree looking into the valley. The widow kept horses and she was offered a colt. The colt didn’t like being close to humans and was quite difficult. When the widow went to see the colt it immediately trotted up to her and was really friendly. As a result she bought it. The colt almost immediately went to the same tree as her late husband. Everyday the colt could be seen standing by the tree looking at the valley.

I must admit my friend did get me thinking. What if my mum was in the spirit of the squirrel. That little squirrel who seemed to join me at the grave. Then a rather scary thought came to my mind. What would have happened if my mum had manifested herself as her favourite animal. I suspect I may have found a turn of pace quicker than a sports car. My mums favourite animal was a TIGER.