Falling and Laughing by Grace Maxwell

Author:Grace Maxwell [Grace Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407028057
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

HOME AGAIN

ON A PERFECT day in early June, I proved him wrong. Edwyn came home. Only for one lovely hour, but he was home, and he knew that one day soon, he’d be home for good.

It had been brewing for a few days. I had been agitating for the home visit to happen as soon as it possibly could. These visits were the preserve of the occupational therapists and they would be assessing everything as they went along. Not just how Edwyn handled it, but me too. And our house, which they would have to visit. Could Edwyn cope with it, would it work? What adaptations would we need? All these tests would have to be passed. There is a side of me that would start a fight with my shadow, but on this day I was a woman with but a single thought. Get him home. I aimed to please. So anxious was I in advance to pass with flying colours I’d tried to pre-empt all the requirements that would be asked of me. So, I had the stair lift installed. I’d hired a long metal ramp to get Edwyn up the two front door steps. I had an additional wheelchair for the upper floor and various bathroom stuff. Amete and Hazel had the house looking squeaky clean and gorgeous. Fingers crossed.

I even had the car valeted, assuming we would go in it. Wrong again. Hospital insurance dictated that we go in a mini cab. Ours is not to reason why.

The home visit started with me meeting the occupational therapist and her student in the car park, where she showed me how to use the sliding board, a banana-shaped solid piece of plastic, to slide Edwyn, in about six stages, from the wheelchair and into the front seat. And there he was. Armed with sick bags we set off on the journey which would take about thirty or forty minutes. As we drew nearer to home I asked him if he recognised our local area?

No, nothing at all.

I pointed out landmarks, but still no recognition.

Near our street I wondered if he was excited? His answer: ‘Trepidatious.’

Relating this to Pip later, she said that earlier that day Edwyn had described his feelings as ‘apprehensive’. Impressive.

At the house we got him into the wheelchair. Hazel had already rolled out the ramp and through the front door he came, for the first time since he was carried out on that freezing February night. We pushed him straight through to the kitchen, where the first thing he saw was the large Tretchikoff print on the wall, a moving-in present from our friends Pav and Henri. Tretchikoff is the famous artist who did all those Woolworths pictures that hung above the fireplaces in a million working-class homes when I was growing up, including my own. Edwyn had used one, Tina, on the cover of ‘A Girl Like You’. But the Pav and Henri picture was a less-often seen portrait of a 60s beatnik girl. And Edwyn recognised it instantly.

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