Life Is A Soap Opera

Back to my soap opera life!
At times it feels like my life jumps from one drama to the next.  I'm not sure if it's because we have three very different children who all bring various aspects to our life.   We have eldest son.  He's the least confident of our children.  He's very serious, gentle, a hard worker and the one who's worried us the most probably!  He wanted nothing more than to settle with a wife, the picket fence and children but it didn't happen for him and he's brought some 'crackers' into our life while trying to find 'the one'.  Thankfully, he seems to have found her now and also thankfully, we love her!  
Our daughter, the middle child, has also brought her very own brand of drama to our life!   She had her son when she was 20 at a time when she had been planning to go and live and work in Spain with some friends.  That will tell you all it needs to, however, her boyfriend, the father, took full responsibility and proposed and took his role very seriously.  Unfortunately it was not to be.  They were great friends but not 'in love' however our grandson Mark was a very loved baby and although his parents parted company not long after he was born, they stayed good friends and now consider each other 'a best friend'.    She met her husband 12 years ago, he moved in with her when his family home was badly flooded and never left.   Well, I tell a lie, he left many times, sometimes because they were arguing and sometimes to work.  He works and lives most of the time in Dubai.  Having been a pilot with Globespan, he was made redundant when the company collapsed and for almost two years was unemployed.  Hence, when a job opportunity came along but based in Dubai, he had to take it.    They had hoped it would be a short term solution but unfortunately for various reasons he's had to remain there and at the moment in this lockdown situation its even worse as they have no idea when they will see each other again.  They had Charlotte 10 years ago and that was traumatic in itself.  My daughter had placenta previa and was in hospital for 9 weeks prior to the early birth (5 weeks early) of her daughter.  We were terrified of losing our daughter and/or our granddaughter at that time but all was well and after a few days in special care our tiny granddaughter came home.  Eventually, after a very 'fiery' relationship for a few years they decided to get married and quite literally went to the local registry office and asked when was the first available date for them to get married.   It was June 19th 2018 and they weren't even sure her husband to be would be home from Dubai on that date!  We had 6 weeks to prepare and fortunately my daughter already had a dress she hadn't yet worn.  It was very flouncy and summery and once she got our local seamstress to alter it a bit it looked fabulous!  Needless to say, he got home in time!

My daughter thought she might not bother with a bouquet, but I felt that wasn't on so I picked roses from our garden, bought some gypsophylia and my neighbour gave me some of his roses too, I studied some You Tubes and made her a bouquet and buttonholes for the groom and his best man, their son Mark.   We had a lunch in a local pub, a friend of my daughter made a cake for them and as they were having some friends to their house afterwards, my mum and aunt decorated it all for them while the ceremony took place.  There were only us and the children at the ceremony. Don't let anybody tell you you have to spend a fortune to get married.  This cost hardly anything and everyone had a brilliant day.  Doing everything in such a short time was pretty stressful at times but it was worth it and being married has agreed with them. They are much more settled now and he is trying to find a way to come back to work here, however with the way of the world at the moment, being a pilot isn't exactly a secure job just now, so it may be a while yet.
In November 2018 I had the week from hell.  My eldest son was attacked and very badly injured on the Saturday; my dad slipped overnight into a form of dementia on the Monday and one of my best friends died very suddenly on the following Saturday.   Eldest son's attack was by one of the 'crackers' I referred to previously, she hit him with a bottle and badly injured his face, all the bones round his eye were broken, however, thankfully, it all healed beautifully and there was no permanent damage to his sight.  The silver lining of this was that it got rid of the 'cracker' which was a relief to us.  We had begun to suspect he was being physically abused by her but he wouldn't admit to it.  We started to notice he had various scratches and bruises but would become very defensive if we asked about them.  Now when I hear of domestic abuse I always feel the need to remind everyone that some men are abused too.  Our son is very gentle and would never lift a hand to a woman so he was a sitting target.  

I want to finish on a happier note.  My son recuperated with us for a few months then some friends introduced him to a lovely girl and they seem to have hit it off.  She has been very good for him and he's so much happier now which is wonderful.  Also, thankfully, he started a new job in February which is salaried and will definitely continue once the lockdown has ended, he was previously self employed and would have been wiped out by the lockdown!
See you soon for what I think will be the final (historical) catch up! xx