11th and 12th March 2010
Claire de Lune [Debussy]
Maurice
and Sylvia had already said that I could stay there again on my way past and I
desperately wanted to get back into Devon. I eventually got to Launceston but
my back was back with a vengeance. Maurice and Sylvia rescued me. Sylvia was a
nurse and after a mild telling off, she gave me heat pads and Voltorol tablets
and later I was persuaded by her to lie in bed with a rolled up towel beneath
the area of most pain and told to rest and sleep.
Two days of rest with thoughts from the past on how my back got to be so delicate. In the summer of 1978 I was working for a charity that helped disabled children have a holiday. A placement with my then fiancé, Joy, at Borwick Hall, northeast of Carnforth, Lancashire was the location for that holiday. Borwick Hall had been used for a children's TV series called The Ghosts of Motley Hall and staying there with a number of disabled people was interesting and rewarding. I could lie in bed at Maurice and Sylvia's and remember the characters who shared that week.
Susannah and Donna, who both had severe Cerebral palsy did not like each other but were unable to express their dislike so frustrations grew between them. Back in those long off days there were no computers and Donna had an alphabet on a wooden board, which she used to communicate with others by pointing to each letter laboriously. Donna went on to get a First class honours degree in History! A lesson learnt, appearances are always deceiving.
Then there was Vinnie, a very tall, severely
disabled and extremely thin and lightweight seventeen year old. I remembered
how he was prevented from going on The Revolution, a brand new rollercoaster at
Blackpool Pleasure Beach because of his disability. I remembered my disgust
with the operators of the ride over their unfounded prejudice. Vinnie would
have had no problems from this ride. I wondered whether The Rotary Club of
Blackpool still organised tickets and events for the charity?
At that time, 1978, my fiancé, Joy had just
had a successful interview for a teaching position in Clitheroe, not too far
from her home in Southport. I still did not have a teaching job but had had an
interview at a Secondary School, Moreton in Bushbury, Wolverhampton where I
luckily came second! Eight prospective candidates for the position of science
teacher had arrived at the school in the morning. Two of them immediately
dropped out having looked at the local area and having heard that the previous
teacher had been attacked by students, I was more than happy with my failing
securing the post. The Headteacher of this school, Mr Pask, then got in touch
with the Headteacher, Miss Mary Haste, of a nearby Secondary School, Coppice
High School on an extremely large council estate, Ashmore Park . Mary phoned
for an interview and I chose to get there from Lancashire by hitch-hiking down
the M6.
I stood with ‘mon pouce magique’ outstretched
by the nearest M6 roundabout junction to Carnforth, junction 34 and soon had a
lift in a small lorry. The driver, Norman Golightly, was on his way to Hemel
Hempstead. There must be something about that place, for the mere mention of
the town's name these days brings me out in a cold sweat with shallow breathing
and heart palpitations!
The weather was particularly foul and got
worse as the afternoon drifted into evening. Just before the Wednesbury turn
off near Walsall, a car cut Norman up and the lorry went into a spin. It then
smashed against a central reservation lamppost and I went flying out of the
door. No seat belts to be worn back then, I hit the tarmac and ended up draped
across the crash barrier. Obviously, I have no recollection of this as the
impact of me and the tarmac knocked me out. Ambulance paramedics told me how
they found me as I was asked which limbs I could move before being placed on a
stretcher and taken to The Manor Hospital in Walsall.
I
should have been dead. Hitting the fast lane of a motorway shoulder first meant
that my left side was severely damaged and glass from the smashed windscreen
had to be removed from my back by a nurse using tweezers. I had survived.
I
went to the teaching job interview with broken ribs and a severely dislocated
shoulder strapped up. They gave me the job, a science teacher with
responsibility for biology, because of their amazement that I would be
interviewed despite such injuries. I went on to teach there for eleven years.
Now
that accident must have damaged my spine for every so often my lower back goes
into spasm and this is what had happened whilst in the tent.
Feeling a little better I went into Launceston for more cycle repairs and at the superb Launceston Cycles Nigel gave much needed advice over cycle repair and usage. Too much oil so gear replacement and chain. I tried to see the castle but it was closed until April.
In the church of St Mary Magdalene I looked at each memorial stone and particularly the one about the Lawrences. Mum and Dad died around the age of 40 but their four children did not reach that age; two died as infants with no age specified and the other two around the age of twenty each. Sad times.
I bought a book in the Oxfam bookshop; Bill Oddie's Gripping Yarns. A book to
read and smile whilst doing so, I relaxed some more and spent time talking with
my lovely hosts.
Malcolm
and Sylvia were great company and together we watched the Birds of Paradise
Natural World programme on TV, followed by another programme about Scottish
wildlife. Midges! I looked forward to encountering those little mites this summer!
Malcolm and Sylvia, I still cannot thank them enough.
21.8 miles
1,345 feet up 1,224 feet down
