(Part 01)
It was to a very successful organization that palliative care Nurse Patricia Clerembeax joined on a bitter cold January morning along with another new nurse named Dani Carew.
It was four years to the day after Dr Claire Lutchford nee Andrews, took over the Shallowfield Surgery and in that short time she and her business partner Olivia Shenton had transformed it into the Dancingdean Heath Centre, which had continued to grow in stature which necessitated the expansion of staff numbers.
Equally while things had been going well for Claire and Olivia in the four years they had been running the Dancingdean Heath Center in Shallowfield it had been a very similar story for most of those four years for Patricia, but the last six months had taken a turn for the worst because her fiancé of five years dumped her and went off with a man, and she had had to deal with the fallout.
His parents blamed her and she was left feeling that she had actually turned him gay.
So she decided on pastures new, she had also thought about a change of direction professionally, but she liked palliative care, and furthermore she was good at it, however she needed to grow so she decided on Shallowfield because she would still have opportunities to do what she was really good at as well as fulfilling numerous other rolls.
It was hard leaving the Hedgerley Court Hospice and her cottage in Applesford but she knew it was the right thing to do.
It was just before Christmas when Patricia moved into Flat 2, of East Cliff Lodge, overlooking the picturesque Teardrop Lake.
The view of the water from their flats was spectacular with its distinctive teardrop shape, which gave the lake its name, surrounded by the ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forest.
It was a modest body of water as lakes go, just over two miles long and almost a mile at its widest point, it really was a thing of beauty and was both idyllic and peaceful.
There was little or no noise pollution and although the lake was used there were no speed boats or jet skis, only rowing boats, canoes, dinghies and skiffs.
Fortunately Patricia was not the only new starter at the health centre or the only newbie to the area.
Dani Carew, who was the new practice nurse, moved into flat number 4, of the same building, a couple of days after her.
Both Patricia’s and Dani’s moves had been purely out of choice because they were looking for a change and not like many in their profession had moves forced upon them due to cost cutting measures.
As they both moved in before Christmas and weren’t due to start work until the New Year and as they were neighbours the two new girls gravitated towards each other and became firm friends.
Chantelle Grimwood, who lived in number 1, also worked at the health centre, as a Doctor and she and her husband Richard volunteered to show the new girls around and help them get their bearings and settle in.
(Part 02)
They were both dreading that first Christmas in a new place without anyone to cuddle up to, and they thought that all that time on their own would drive them crazy.
But they needn’t have worried for a second as Chantelle soon introduced them around to all the mad people they would be working with and they had so many invitations throughout December that they didn’t have a minute to think about being lonely, even in the quieter moments because they were too exhausted.
After a very enjoyable first Christmas in her new home Patricia was really pleased that she wasn’t starting the new job on her own and she knew Dani felt the same way.
They both slotted right in at the Heath Centre and they soon found that the rest of the staff were just as friendly as the ones they had already met were.
Patricia loved her job from the first moment she walked through the doors and she loved living on the Lake even more.
In the last six months of living in Applesford she had taken to riding a bike again, as she found it helped burn off the anger she felt towards her ex fiancé and his family.
When she moved to Teardrop Lake she rode every day around the idyllic lake but no longer felt any anger.
On the weekends she would do the house work on Saturdays and on Sundays she would ride off farther afield and explore the Finchbottom Vale or any one of a number of places of interest around the lake, two Folly’s, a Watch tower, Olwen’s Chapel, a waterfall, brooks, streams, a 16th Century Bridge and lovers leap.
Patricia Clerembeax was a pretty woman, with quite elfin features, and short brunette hair, and a wiry muscular physique, but she managed to look feminine, she was not however a girly girl and had always tended to be a tomboy.
She stood five foot eight inches tall, and was slender and lean and she was originally a townie girl from Abbottsford, and Pat was twenty nine years old but looked much younger.
She had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to end her days as a singleton after the humiliation of discovering that her pig of an ex-fiancé was gay after he left her for the best man.
Apart from needing to be shown the inner workings of the practice, the processes and procedures, Patricia really needed a guided tour of the area.
District nursing being part of her remit after all, so she needed to familiarise herself with the district.
First of all she bought herself an ordinance survey map of the Finchbottom Vale, between the Dancingdean Forest and the Pepperstock Hills, which encompassed her territory.
The problem was that maps weren’t really Patricia’s forte.
She did have a satnav in the car which would get her from A to B but that wouldn’t help her map out the district in her head.
So she asked the other newbie Dani Carew to help, she was the obvious choice to her mind as she was also clueless about the area so between them they could get their baring’s enough to avoid any major faux pas.
They were both based at the Health Centre for the first two months and it took that long driving around in their spare time to crack it enough for them to be let loose on an unsuspecting Finchbottom Vale.
(Part 03)
The district nursing team had a number of regular home visit, terminally ill or housebound patients or those recuperating after surgery and they soon built up a good rapport with them.
As Patricia’s background was in palliative care she had the lion’s share of terminally ill patients on her list, but she didn’t mind as she found helping a person to end their time in a dignified manner was very rewarding and in her first six months at the Dancingdean Health Centre she became a valuable member on the team.
When she was first put on the visitors list, one of Patricia’s first patients was 75 year old Andrew Bates who had stage 4 liver cancer as well as numerous secondaries.
Andrew lived alone in the small country village of
Mornington-By-Mere which lay in the Finchbottom Vale that nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
It was one of Patricia’s favourite destinations when she was out exploring on her bike on the weekends which always ended with a drink at the Old Mill Inn.
Mornington is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.
By the time the summer had arrived Andrew had deteriorated so his youngest son David moved in to look after him.
David and his father lived in the part of the village known as Manorside where there were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane and they lived at number 3, Brewery Cottages on the former.
Driving to Mornington to see Andrew was one of her favourite visits.
David was roughly the same age as Patricia and they got on really well and whenever she was there the two of them flirted outrageously but she never intended it to be anything other than flirting, but she always looked forward to seeing him.
“See you tomorrow sexy” she said as she left the house.
The following day Patricia was with Andrew longer than usual as he had had a very uncomfortable night, David was just leaving the lounge as she was coming down the stairs and he offered her a coffee, as he always did, and to his delight and surprise she accepted.
It was unusual for her to say yes as she always tried to avoid too many drinks during the day as by her own admission she had a bladder the size of a pea.
But she wasn’t her normal sparky self and David wrongly assumed it was the state of his father’s health that had brought her down.
Whereas the real reason she was low was that her pig of an Ex Fiancé, who had dumped her and ran off with the best man, married him at the weekend.
Despite her low mood Patricia did however enjoy her coffee with him and he had raised her spirits sufficiently to produce a prolonged exchange of significant flirting between them before she had to say goodbye.
(Part 04)
The next morning when Patricia reported for work at the Health Centre there was a message for her to say that Andrew Bates had had another bad night so she turned on her heels and got back in her car.
David Bates was 32 years old and was the youngest of 4 boys but he was the only one who was upset about his father’s illness and the only one who bothered to go and see him.
He was always a difficult man to love, he was always pushing and cajoling the boys to work harder, to make the most of themselves and to better themselves, so that they could have a better life than he had.
But he came across as cold and uncaring to his sons, but nonetheless his strategy worked as all four of his sons had bettered themselves, three of them to such an extent that they wouldn’t even lower themselves to be seen in the house they were raised in.
David himself was a graphic novelist and a very successful one.
He was the only one of the boys who didn’t take after his father in either appearance or temperament he was blessed that he took all his traits from his mother.
His father and his brothers were all over six feet tall, unyielding and uncompromising whereas he was six inches shorter and had the soul of a mediator.
The only thing he inherited from his father was jet black hair and steel blue eyes.
When she arrived at the house David was scrubbing at a saucepan in the kitchen sink and he stopped when she knocked at the front door.
He let go of the saucepan and dried his hands and when he opened it the slender lean figure of Patricia Clerembeax was standing on the step in the cool morning air in her polyester uniform.
“Come in” he urged her “you don’t have to knock”
“I don’t like to enter uninvited” she said
“You are always welcome and have an open invitation” he said and smiled
“You look tired” she said
“Yes, he had a bad night again” David said
“I’ll just go and check on him” she said and put her hand on his and squeezed it
As she climbed the stairs Patricia knew Andrew was deteriorating fast and that each visit had the potential to be her last and she was even sadder about that than usual.
While Patricia was upstairs checking on Andrew, David returned to the kitchen and resumed his washing up.
It didn’t take long as he only had the saucepan to finish and when that was done he put the kettle on, sat down at the kitchen table and picked up his sketch pad.
He always kept it close at hand, and in the quiet moments he would work on an idea.
But over the weeks he had been staying with his dad all his sketches were of Patricia.
(Part 05)
He didn’t hear her come downstairs, nor did he hear her walk into the kitchen and sidle up behind him.
In fact the first time he knew she was standing behind him was when she put her hand on his shoulder.
“Is that me?” she asked looking over his shoulder
David jumped and quickly closed the pad.
“It’s just an idea I’m working on for the next chapter” he said quickly
“Let me see then”
“No it’s a… work in progress” he said hurriedly and slipped the pad into a draw and changed the subject.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?”
Patricia was very curious to see the contents of the pad but she had a more pressing matter regarding his father.
“I’ve phoned Dr Lutchford, because his breathing is laboured and I think the end is close”
The Doctor arrived about half an hour later and Patricia showed her upstairs.
Fifteen minutes later they returned and Claire Lutchford said
“He has a chest infection and he should be in hospital”
“But he was adamant he wanted to die in his own bed” David said
With both parties diametrically opposed Patricia said
“I can stay on till the end”
It was after all what she was well practiced in.
“Well I’m happy with that if you both are” Claire said
“I am” David said
“Ok that’s settled then” Claire announced
For the rest of the day Patricia split her time between attending to Andrew and keeping David Company and every time she went upstairs he would retrieve his sketch pad.
Andrew ordered an Indian takeaway from the Bengal in Shallowfield and they ate together in the kitchen which set them up for the long weary night ahead.
Andrew Bates died just after seven o’clock on Saturday Morning with the summer sun invading the room and bathing his deathbed in sunlight.
Patricia was patient and considerate and waited with David, who was quiet and showed no emotion as they finally left the room
David spent the morning in his room while Patricia made all the necessary phone calls.
Sgt Jones, the village policeman paid a visit to rule out foul play and stayed until Dr Lutchford arrived to sign the death certificate.
And an hour later William Hemmings and Sons arrived to collect the deceased, although it was Melanie Hemmings who offered the condolences.
David was looking out the kitchen window as the Hemmings vehicle drove away and Patricia walked up behind her and lightly stroked the back of his arm.
“Are you ok honey?” she asked
“No not really” he replied and the tears he had been holding back immediately welled up in his eyes as he turned towards her, so she took him in her arms and he dissolved completely into tears.
“Its ok honey” she whispered, “let it all go”
And as he sobbed uncontrollably onto her shoulder, Patricia kissed his cheek.
She held him close and stroked his back as he sobbed until he lifted his head and said
“I’m getting you uniform wet”
“I don’t care” she replied and he broke down again.
(Part 06)
At number 3 Brewery cottages in the Manorside part of Mornington, Patricia Clerembeax and David Bates stood in each other’s arms while he cried on her shoulder.
It dawned on her at that moment as he sobbed his heart out that now Andrew was gone she would have no reason to go to Brewery Cottages and she wouldn’t see him again, and that was what she was thinking as she consoled him with her empty words.
Shameful selfish thoughts of her never seeing him again as she held him in her arms instead of thinking of him and his loss.
It was a glorious sunny day in Mornington, though the reason she was there was a gloomy one, she and David were sat together on the patio, which was bathed in the afternoon sun and were both silently staring down the garden after the death of his father.
They were both excruciatingly tired because it had been a very long night sitting up with Andrew, however she had had a lot of time to think as Andrews life ebbed away.
And almost all of those thoughts had been about David and the reason that driving to Mornington to see Andrew was one of her favourite visits.
It certainly wasn’t to see Andrew, he was a curmudgeonly old cuss, no, it was to see David.
They got on really well and whenever she was there the two of them flirted outrageously but she never thought it was anything other than flirting, but she would have to confess that she always looked forward to seeing him and hoped that it might be.
But everything came into sharp focus now that she was faced with the prospect of never seeing him again.
When David broke down in tears in Patricia’s arms not all his tears were for his dad, although he felt great sadness at his passing, most of his tears and the desperate heartache was for the loss yet to come when the lovely district nurse would cease to visit him and brighten his lonely days.
But he was powerless to change the inevitable.
They sat in his garden for more than an hour in silence neither of them knowing what to say.
Desperate to ask the question but unable to summon the words in which to frame it.
Finally in desperation Patricia broke the silence
“Why won’t you let me see your sketches?” she asked
“As I said they are just a work in progress” he replied
“I could still look at them” she suggested
“Definitely not” he said curtly
“Oh why?”
“Because it’s an “artist” thing” he said unconvincingly
There was a moment of silence and then she took a deep breath and asked
“Am I the work in progress?”
David gasped at the question and paused before replying, he didn’t know if he should bluff it out or come clean because he couldn’t detect in her question what her disposition was.
Patricia thought she had made a terrible mistake and thought she should beat a hasty retreat to preserve her dignity but just as she was about to move he said
“Yes”
“I thought so” she replied calmly although inside she was doing somersaults
“I’m sorry” he said “I know it’s inappropriate”
“Don’t be sorry” Patricia said and took hold of his hand “I’m glad”
No comments:
Post a Comment