Thursday photo prompt: Vista #writephoto
For visually challenged writers, the image shows a wide, summer landscape, seen from a narrow path near the top of a hill that looks out across a valley.
(Dictionary definition)
Living in misery
Attended by misery and woes
Inferior in performance or quality
Very unpleasant: deplorable
For the past two weeks, it has been a case of all the above, since Anita, the head of our family had a nasty heart attack. She also had pneumonia, which was complicating matters even further, but due to the corona virus lockdown, we were not allowed to visit her in the hospital.
So for seven miserable and wretched days we worried our socks off at home, wondering what was going on and how Anita was feeling.
On the third day, we managed to acquire the number of the telephone, which was conveniently right next to Anita’s bed, which enabled us to speak to her and find out how she was feeling and what had been happening. This contact was a godsend for all of us and went a long way to keeping us from self-detonating!
Anita is back home now, but the misery is still present, although not as intense as it was before. She has extensive damage to her heart and as yet no way of knowing the exact prognosis. There is a waiting list for the MRI which will ascertain the damage, but until that day arrives, wretched will unfortunately be the order of the day…
I once stood on a hill very much like this one, breathing in the hot sunshine as I tried to figure out which way I needed to walk. I didn’t really have a clue as to the direction and since leaving the train station, I seemed to have myself hopelessly lost.
I had an appointment that afternoon in a place called Clandon and that was where I thought the train had brought me. I found out, too late, that I should have stayed on the train for one more stop for where I was now, was East Clandon.
How or why I thought I could walk to the next station rather than wait for over an hour for the next train still puzzles me, even now. Or why I chose the countryside rather than the road to reach my appointment. I remember feeling confident that it would be quicker and that I could do it. I loved to walk, and the day was perfect.
What I didn’t know at the time, was there were a mile of fields to cross, not something I had done since a child.
Somehow, I guessed the direction and set off. It seemed to get hotter as I walked, the air becoming heavier as my breathing deepened. As I walked, I lost track of time as I enjoyed being alone and at one with nature. The everyday world had gone away, replaced by so much green, fields, hedges, and the faint song of a skylark so high above my head.
I managed to keep my appointment, but quite glad I wouldn’t need to walk back to that station…
