My father is amazing. After two wonderful years at his Sunrise, Cardiff, care home, he left today after buying a flat in Penarth, near Cardiff.
Everyone at Sunrise has been so kind to Dad since he moved in just over two years ago: former general manager Sara, new boss Virgil, Francesca, Diane and so many others. They guided him through the pandemic, and we will always be so grateful. His book, Pandemic: my Care Home Diary, is his tribute. His time at Sunrise rebuilt his health, and has let him spread his wings once again.
Dad is very happy with his own company (he enjoys blogging and writing) but also loves the companionship of others. As I carried more stuff up to his new flat, I came across a group of women enjoying a bottle or two of wine. I explained Dad’s Penarth heritage dating back to his joining the Penarth Times as a reporter in 1942 – an astonishing 79 years ago! – and said he’d be happy to join them, and the men, for a glass of wine or a coffee.
Karen and I are in a unique time of life. We have a very special 13 year old son who is finding his wings as a teenager. And we have a father/father-in-law who is also retrieving his own wings, setting up home once again, some 70 years after creating his first home with Mum in Caerphilly. It’s like keeping an eye over 13 year old and 95 year old teenagers! Long may they flourish. We love them both so much.
Ertblog 
Gosh, amazing. Hear, hear to that.
I began following your blog after I ran across it one day in 2020 as I searched for the television drama, A Kind of Loving. Something I’d watched during the early ’80s, had never forgotten, and had a hankering to watch again.The pandemic had just begun. It can’t have been more than a week or so after that, that your lovely dad appeared on Good Morning Britain (in a tent, meeting you) and it struck me suddenly, I suppose, that you were the one whose blog I’d just started to follow. Anyway, that explains that!
I enjoy your blogs a lot. I’m a Brit ex-Pat of thirty-three years, settled for life in Georgia, USA, but still constantly homesick, and your writing gives me a taste of home — even the cycling. I spent summers during the early 1970s in Tenby, at a caravan park, so, there’s that too.
My 2nd year Junior School teacher, Miss Over, taught me to “never start a sentence or paragraph with ‘and’ or ‘but’, or ‘anyway'”. I use a lot of ‘howevers’ because of this. This time, however, I’m going to use an ‘anyway’ simply because it works.
Anyway, I think your dad is a lovely, lovely man! Stalwart and sensible. And I really do appreciate your blogs.
Thanks for your lovely comment, Lindsey. Such a lovely surprise to read such kind thoughts. Dad loved your comment too! Wishing you the very best.
Wonderful to hear the update about your Dad Rob!
Cam
Thanks Cam!
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