Week 407 “August 2015 – JILLSGYM”

A conflict of ideas on FB in the past few days has shocked me back into some activity.

I must admit that all my time in the past few months has been family orientated and a lack of enthusiasm  to any thing else. I have had the opportunity to be a full time grand father – something that Jill would have done anything for, to spend time with her grand children and see them grow as I have done. Riley my eldest (5) mentions his Grandma and we have little talks about what she would think about his swimming , playing hockey and reading. He remembers little things – riding on the foot pads of her wheel chair . Lucas (3) was just born and Jill got to hold him . I still show him Jill’s photo and I say this is Grandma – he now says the image on my iPad is Grandma. She would love to be here and see them in their Football gear – she would have said they should be Melbourne ( AFL) not Essendon.

Riley & Lucas in their Essendon gear

Seeing a song by Josh Groban “To where you are”on U Tube made me think more about what I have lost  It had been posted on MSA Australia & NewZealand FB page by a friend from UK who lost her husband 12 months ago

I also found Jill’s jewellery which I had hidden 3 years ago – well hidden I don’t even remember putting them where I found them. I wanted to get the family to share them rather than sit in a hidden location – Jill always wanted them to be used . I have been very upset at not remembering where they were – even contemplating going to the police to report there disappearance. That would have been embarrassing when they actually turned up. My neighbour and family keep saying they will turn up – stop worrying.

When Jill died I thought there was couple of things I would like to do to keep her memory alive for me and the family – to help others suffering from the is horrible disease.             We had set up a gym ( Jillsgym) in our garage and my thought was to donate the equipment to other MSA patients – the problem was to relocate the equipment into a space big enough to handle it. I had built a large carport to handle the car and caravan – leaving the garage free. It is still used ,my neighbour uses it regularly and her husband is about to have a knee replacement so it will be quite busy . Jill would have been annoyed that I was not using it more .

I would like to write a book on Jills journey through MSA – fortunately I wrote in this blog regularly so I have the information but probably lack the expertise. I know there were some things that I was not allowed to write about as Jill thought they were to personnel or embarrassing. Jill always ( as a teacher) checked what I had written for spelling and grammar.

I am now at the point I would like to establish “JILLSGYM” as a MSA awareness and Fundraising entity. I am not sure how this can be done. I feel it is important that Australia be given the opportunity to donate to an actual MSA fund not some thing where we are under the umbrella of another organisation – there fore not knowing where your donation will end up.

I am heading north to Hervey Bay Queensland for some warmth with my family and while away will visit a few MSA patients I haven’t seen for a couple of years.

See you soon on the net