General Chat

she sound a lovely lady liz

its so heartwarming to hear you stayed in touch with her, and your son kept visiting,
its something to always keep with you isnt it

i hope shes rallying thru and isnt in pain

Thinking of you and your family....xxx

Hi Liz, don't know why I didn't see this before, hope G will be ble to go and see her. It's such a tiring disease, exacerbated no doubt by the chemo, why haven't they told her, sounds like, with her strength, she would fight it if she knew. JMHO.
Hugs to you too, as she obviously holds a special place in your heart.
Love
Mary

This morning I was setting the VCR for what needs to be taped while I'm working this evening (Monday, nothing but House tonight here), and spotted a program on Ontario public television: BBC's The Siege of Malta. I don't think I'd ever heard of it until you mentioned here what your son's grandmother had been through. So we'll watch that tonight, and she will be in my mind.

Thoughts and prayers for Nanna - do hope your son manages to see her again Liz. She sounds a lovely lady.
Love Mary xx

Thank you for the kind wishes. G's Nanna is a very typical Maltese lady from the older generation when family were the most important thing. When we visited in 2007 she was still doing lots of the cooking at their home and gave us a traditional meal, which was nice but different to things we eat. My son was her first grandson, she had three granddaughters here in England and had been over to visit when they were smaller, with her daughter, but hasn't been able to travel or go far from the house for a while now, as she lives upstairs in a flat so lots of stairs to get down. It's a traditional type of flat with just a tiny yard about two metres square out from the kitchen but I think there might be access to the roof for hanging out washing, it would be shared with others in the block. To think she brought up six children there is amazing. She has two more grandsons now, my son's half brother who is 17 and another grandson who had to be brought up in care there due to legalities, she wanted to have him but his mother, who is a bit odd, wouldn't allow it altho she allowed the child to go into care rather than let him live with his father or grandmother. Now he is grown up, about 16 he lives with his father I think, but Nanna sees him often so she has known all the youngsters, and has seen my son every time we have visited, which is about six times now.

And yes, I am fond of her, she never denied my son being part of the family altho for a long time she couldn't put his photo on display for fear of upsetting my son's stepmother, but that's been resolved now and she has his pic out with the rest of them

Lizx

Nanna sounds such a well adjusted lady for one of her generation, able to cope with step children, etc, I wish her good luck with the treatment, I'm sure she will have the strenght to see it through.

Jean, she doesn't have any step children or stepgrandchildren altho I am sure she would take them in her stride, she is just a really nice person as well as I can tell, altho it's quite hard to get to know a person really well when you can't have a direct conversation with her.
She loved it when we last visited because my son used my new digital camera to take photos of the photos she had on her wall, his dad at his confirmation, a little boy all dressed in white, Nanna as a bridesmaid in pink, aged about 15 and must have been during the siege of Malta, and her wedding photo with son's grandfather who he never met, he was a policeman. It's nice my lad has the photos of the pictures for his family history.
I must get some new photos of my son to put in with her Christmas card. It's going to be sad if this is the last card he/we send her - hope it isn't tho.

Lizx

Thanks Barbra, typical of the family, no one has let me know how she is - I suppose I will have to do all the chasing for info.

Lizx

Dear Purple

Hello

Sending warm and gentle thoughts to your Son's Nana.

Take care of yourself.

Very sincere wishes
xx

Thanks Elizabeth, I will call her daughter in law this weekend and see what news there is to pass on.
I just hope Nanna is well enough to enjoy Christmas and having most of her family close by, with the thought of visits in the Spring to keep her going.

Lizx

Finally managed to get hold of my son's cousin who says Nanna is doing ok and has a check up on Tuesday. Seems she has had this problem for a year but only just been given meds after last blood tests. S. said she is pretty cheerful and still trying to do things round the house, a little cooking and dusting etc and doesn't know what illness she has. She told me how thin Nanna was when she saw her In November and that she looks as small as a child, she just under 5' tall but used to be well cushioned, but not now. However she still has her sense of humour apparently and is taking things in her stride.
I hope she will continue to be as well as this and it will give the rest of the relatives time to visit her and spend time with her before it all becomes too much for her.
If you could still send positive thoughts, I would appreciate it, thanks for those sent so far.


Lizx

Sending positive thoughts to this lovely lady.

Love & cuddles to her and to you
Take care of yourself
Steph xxx

Positive thoughts for this plucky lady.

Also sending some positive thoughts to your son's Nana, x

thanks all


Lizx

I spoke with my son's aunt last evening and seems Nanna has been having back pain, some days being unable to get out of bed, so her chemo dose has been lowered a bit and she has to go back for further tests after Christmas. Son's uncle, living here, is worried and thinks the worse so let's hope he is wrong and it's just age and strain on her spine from being weak and so thin.

One bit of good news, one of my son's cousins is pregnant again - her daughter will be 10 on Christmas Eve and then another sister had a baby boy in Oct. 08 and the third sister had a daughter in Feb 09. This new one is due in July, hopefully on my son's birthday or mine lol There was a bit of a scare earlier on - seems the little one was conceived just before or just after the girl went to see Nanna a short while ago, but then the doc told her she had miscarried. She was devastated but then felt pregnant still, had further tests and is pregnant, so maybe a twin lost or just a blip !
So more positive thoughts please for Nanna and for this new life coming - I am sure when Nanna finds out it will give her the will to continue trying to get well again (She doesn't know she has leukaemia)

Lizx

Update:
Spoke with my son's uncle last evening and he says Nanna is a little better and putting on a bit of weight so I hope the lower dose is working as it should and she will go on for a lot longer without feeling too poorly.
She has a new grandson or daughter to look forward to, due in July close to my son's birthday and his half brother's birthday so that might give her a reason to stay strong, altho she still hasn't been told she has leukaemia.

Lizx

Liz ,

Thats good news about Nanna.

A good sign if she's putting on weight !


At least it can be treated Liz.

Marilyn x

Liz I have been reading about Nanna and thinking of her but not posting. However this morning I have to say how pleased I am to see she is putting a bit of weight back on and looking better.
Keep it up Nanna.

Caz xx