Dear Frankie,
Our little team of three have been working on a project this weekend and we saw it completed today.
Each of us did something towards its completion and each of us will get a lot of pleasure from watching it all grow and develop.
You will get to eat some of it, we hope!
Daddy recently cut down our hazel tree to make more space for growing veggies. OK, OK don't make those gagging noises, you won't have to actually eat the veggies. Mummy and Daddy will do that. Now get up off the floor and let's get on with the letter.
We used lots of the hazel branches this weekend to make a kind of yurt. The idea being it would be fun to sit inside and if we grew peas up it, you could indulge in your love of shelling peas and eating them raw.
So, your main job was to use the secateurs and trim all the small twigs from the branches.
You did a great job!
Daddy's job was to make the yurt structure and tie it all together so that it's strong and can withstand the gusts of wind it will no doubt receive. He also cut chunks out of the lawn.
Today I finished the project by planting out all the pea seedlings and watering them.
Then I made some bird scarers with twigs tied together and suspended from the top of the yurt and also by tying some old CDs to the frame.
Now we wait and water and tend and scare the evil birds away.
And hope for a harvest.
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And the analogies with dealing with diabetes are clear to us all.
This is how we do it, Frankie.
We all play a part.
At the moment my part is the largest, Daddy's the second largest and yours the smallest.
And yet these roles will shift and morph as the years go by. Sometimes, even now, you want to press the buttons on your pump and I can see glimpses of your understanding of the vocabulary of D.
Daddy and I will always be there to help you manage your diabetes and your life, in all the glorious technicolour that we hope it will entail.
When your are an adult and need a break from it all or have a fever we will be there to take control for a while so that you can concentrate on just being.
My heart beats for you, Frank (even though right now it is 9pm and you are being a pain by not going to sleep and not staying on your bed and shouting at me about a poo on my head - yeah, Waldorf Schmaldorf -and I am emotional enough as Daddy is going away tomorrow for 8 long nights!!!).
Ahem ...
You and Daddy are my smile.
We are all so very lucky that diabetes is manageable. It might be incurable but you can live a fantastic life WITH DIABETES.
And I intend to make that happen, to the best of my ability, for all our sakes.
I love you, honey.
Mummy
xxx
what a great analogy and letter. Frank has one fabulous Mama pancreas!
ReplyDeleteYou rock, Jules. Lucky Frank, to have parents like you (both of you, even if he had to go cycling this week!) who can help him understand, accept and live with his condition.
ReplyDeleteMy son has a friend who is diabetic and she manages it well at school, with the support of the teachers etc. Johnny sometimes sits with her while she pricks her finger. I guess he's seen Ed doing it so often it seems normal, which is helpful for her. He also understands what the numbers mean and is ready with a biscuit before she's even asked. From what I understand there is a group of children who have appointed themselves her people and have a good working understanding of the basics.
I hope Frank finds "his people" when he goes to school. In the meantime, he has you. The BEST!!
Lovely letter!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll keep us posted on how the yurt and the peas are doing with regular photos.
Never thought about hanging up old cds to chase away the critters.
Very sweet! I love your yert!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post Jules. I am tearing up a bit here. Frank is a lucky boy.
ReplyDeleteDUDE...the pea yurt is frickin' COOL! Love the idea and the analogy.
ReplyDeleteFrank is wonderful, you and Big Swifty are wonderful...I yearn for a taste of your cool life when I see your neat photos Jules. Thank you for sharing.
This is such a wonderful post Jules, so contemplative, so sweet and so heartfelt. Thank you for writing it to dear Frank. You are an amazing Mama to him. I love when you tell him you will be there for always and to give him relief when he is older. We never stop being Mamas, do we?
ReplyDeleteLovely post dear friend.
i love your yurt! (there's a sentence i never imagined i'd write!)
ReplyDeletebut the most touching bit about this post was the way you explained you had the biggest role now, but that would change over time. so true. thank you.
Awesome yurt! Awesome letter! Awesome family!
ReplyDeletebeautiful, beautiful beautiful post Jules. Thanks for sharing such a tender moment with us. I love the pictures and story of the yurt along with how it correlates to care of diabetes. Thank you a million times over for this post.
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