Angelic Sherpas

10th July 2012 Tuesday

I’m noticing how worrying and fretting have become a full time job - gnawing away at my time and energy making me snappish and waspish, distracted, withdrawn and slow motioned.  I notice this because today I find myself taking a little holiday from worrying. This is due to an appointment with a lovely woman from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. My friend calls these people Angelic Sherpas - which is exactly what they are.

We sit in her friendly office at the Force Cancer Support Cente at the hospital. We are trying to find things my husband does that may qualify him to claim that he does not have limited capacity for work - which is what the tribunal is about. For example : Can he convey a simple message about the presence of a hazard? He doesn’t know the word hazard but he could tell someone to move out of the way of a lorry backing down a road. He stumbles on the word initiate when he’s reading a sentence out loud but knows what it means if he hears it. Or I explain it to him.

We leave the hospital and drive to the garage to get my car fixed. But the part our man has ordered isn’t the right one. The fault could be one of three different wires and he’s not sure how to find out which one. He says he needs to do more research. Which is how I feel now. We need to find out how to wire up the evidence for this tribunal. But at least now I feel we have a little break in the clouds.

And an appointment in two weeks time with another Angelic Sherpa who can sling a rope between us on the next step up this sheer mountain face which towers so darkly in my mind.....