I`ve just had another call. Twenty two buttonholes and a bouquet  for the bride. I

don`t  think I`ll need Eileen  for this one. That will please Jack. Worries a lot  does

my Jack, and he can get a bit grumpy at times. Mind you it can`t be nice  for him,

stuck inside four walls most of the time. I glance at him sometimes when he`s

watching one of his favourite programmes on the tele and it takes me all my time not
to throw my arms round him and give him a reassuring hug.

     Davy started University this September.  Something to do with environmental

chemistry, whatever that is. Jack says he`ll help all he can, him having spent all

those years up at the chemical plant. I`m sure Davy can manage quite well on his

own but he knows it will make his Dad  feel a bit more useful now he can`t get about

like he used to.
 
     Jack says we could perhaps take in a lodger, now that Davy won`t be using his

room so much. I told him I didn`t fancy the idea of a total stranger wandering about

our house but Jack just laughed and said he was sure nobody would remain a

stranger for long in our cramped little terrace. I`d have to tidy Davy`s room of

course, give his horrible black walls  a coat of cheap emulsion perhaps. And his

pictures will have to go. Some of them would make the Devil blush, pardon my

French! `  Maybe I`ll call in at the Echo`s office in the morning whilst I`m doing the

supermarket shopping and see about putting one of them free adverts in the paper.

Could be a good thing for Jack. I know he gets a bit fed up and bored, `specially

when I`m up to my neck in it with the flowers. He used to help me quite a  lot,

`specially with the buttonholes but it`s got quite difficult for him since he started

gettings these little tremors in his hands..

     I didn`t mind when we moved house. Well with Emma gone and Davy set for

University we didn`t need all that space. I missed the extra room at first, be lying if I

said I didn`t, but I think it was the neighbours I missed most,`specially Bob and

Betty. Gawd, the nights we use to have out with them!  Bob worked with Jack up at the
Plant, well not actually doing the same job, Bob was on Quality control and my Jack

was on Production. Betty, Bobs wife, is a lovely woman but we don`t see much of

them now, what with them living a good way off and us not having a car no more.

      That`s why we don`t see much of Emma and little Lucy now. I ring her most

weeks of course but it`s not like actually seeing them is it. I can tell how stressed she
is sometimes with Lucy. It can`t be easy for her poor girl. I remember the night it

happened. Must have been about three in the morning when the phone rang.

Hospital it was, telling us Emma had gone into premature labour. Jack was too poorly

to travel so I caught one of them Express buses and Nigel, Emma`s partner, met me

at the terminus. I`ve never known a journey take so bloomin` long. She`s almost

four now, Lucy, and just taken her first steps. Emma rang the other night to tell me

she`d just said dada, her first proper word. She sounded really tired on

the phone and I felt really awful that I wasn`t there to help her out more but it`s not

easy, what with Jack and everything..

    I had to call the doctor yesterday on account of Jack not having a very good night.

The tremors in his hands seem to have suddenly got worse and his speech is all kind

of slurred. He did manage a smile though when the doctor asked him how he felt so

he can`t be too bad can he. I won`t bother ringing Davy, what with his exams coming

up, and I`m sure Emma`s got enough to cope with without me getting her all

upset.....   

    
      Looks like the whole family is going to be here for Christmas, so I`ve had to do

a bit of rearranging. I`ve decided  Emma can have the big bedroom and Davy

says he doesn`t mind sleeping on the front room sofa, so I can have his old room.

It`ll be lovely having them all round me, especially now.....