Hello,

I want to tell you all about my beautiful Mum, Carol Turner, she will be 77 on Christmas Day and she is my world. My Mum has always worked hard, working since the age of 14 years old. My Mum had me when she was 43 years old, I was the only girl in my class who had a Mum that was “Older” but I loved it, she was always a fantastic Mum and gave our Family everything she could, whether it be brought or given from the bottom of her heart. My Mum has never ever looked her age, she’s always been so glamorous, taken care of her skin and worn beautiful clothes. At the age of 61 she was working as a Senior Dinner Lady at the School where we live, she was loved by everyone, always helping and caring, sometimes beyond the call of duty. She has been a Childminder too, she has recently just stopped looking after her Childminding Child as she is now 14 and has Independence, she looked after Charlotte since the age of 6 months old. She has also taken care of her 2 Grandsons, taken them to School and cooked their tea for them whilst my Sister worked. With her Birthday being on Christmas Day, it never stopped her from making everybody else’s Day special, she would still cook all the dinner for all the family, 9 people for Lunch and she would be at the heart of us all looking after us on “Her” special day, and she would never complain or ask any of us to do things, even though we would help out she saw it as being the Mum, Wife & Grandma it was her place to take care and love her family.

My Mum lost her parents when she was a young lady, she loved and adored her parents and to this day goes to their resting place to lay her flowers. When her Sister’s Son passed away 3 years ago she was there for the whole family. My Cousin came home to pass away, and in my Auntie’s house they had a bed for him and all the family rallied around and took turns to sleep over for 24 hours, my Mum was 74 then and you see a lot of 74 year old’s being looked after and cared for, but not my Mum, she wanted to help her Sister when she needed it the most. My Mum has helped my Sister & Myself too, she is always putting money on Christmas saving’s cards to help us and our Families, she is so very thoughtful and caring and has a heart of pure Gold. Earlier this Year my Mum became poorly, she had gallstones and wasn’t herself, this began in January of this year, in February my Nephew was deployed to Afghanistan as he serves in the Royal Engineers, he left seeing his Grandma looking her usual young self. As the months went on Mum became really poorly, she wasn’t eating like she should, we were forever at the Hospital and calling the Ambulance to her as she just seemed to be getting worse. Mum went into Hospital a couple of times to have her gallstones removed, but it was unsuccessful, they could only remove 3 and they were huge, she was awake for the whole of the procedure which was extremely awful for Mum. As the weeks went by Mum got worse, we were all waiting for her to have these other gallstones removed that we got taken over by something that we really didn’t expect. By June Mum wasn’t recognizable, it was heartbreaking to see, she had lost so much weight that for the 1^st time ever I saw my M um as an Elderly Lady, and that broke my heart as well as my Sister’s, we had always known mum to be active and young at heart, all she wanted to do now was lay in bed and sleep, we had to help walk her and to help her with hygiene needs which must have taken a lot of mums dignity, but she was as weak as a kitten and couldn’t even lift herself to do anything. My Nephew came home from Afghanistan for his 2 week R&R, we were convinced it would lift her up so much, she talked about Leigh everyday in her weakest moments. I sat with Mum on the morning that he was due home, my sister and her son had gone to collect Leigh from the Airport, we were at home awaiting his return, I was kneeling down putting cream on mums legs as she couldn’t do it herself, she say their and looking so frail said to me “You don’t think he will mind that I have my night dress on do you”!! Typical Mum, worrying about everyone else and what they may think. Of course he won’t I said, my eyes filling up with tears as I was thinking in my mind that Leigh was in for a shock when he saw how his Precious Nan had deteriorated. I sat on the floor and all of a sudden heard my sister’s footsteps in the kitchen, I knew Leigh was here, I stood up and saw him walk through in all his dessert uniform and the biggest lump filled my throat, when mum saw him she cried, and he looked and in all honesty looked so shocked by her appearance, mum clung onto Leigh like she never wanted to ever let him go, and she cried and sobbed like a child, that day will never ever leave me as long as I live.

Soon after Leigh had got in, Mum began to feel tired and asked to go to bed, “You don’t mind do you?” she asked, my sister and I helped her up off her chair and Leigh’s face looked so sad at what he was seeing for the 1^st time in his life, truth is, for the 1^st time in all our lives we were seeing mum ill for the 1^st time and it was heartbreaking.

For the 2 weeks that Leigh was home mum spent her time in bed, she could no longer master going up and down the stairs. One afternoon, my Husband, Myself and our 2 children went to Mums, we were there everyday to help Dad to help Mum, Leigh was their and he was upstairs with Mum, I stood in the lounge and I heard something in their house that I hadn’t heard for a long time……….Laughter!! We went upstairs and saw mum laughing at Leigh and soon we were all laughing and just feeling happy that Mum had the strength to do this, it was only something so simple but meant everything to us. Leigh was due to leave on the Sunday back to Afghanistan to continue his Tour of Duty, it was yet another emotional time watching him say goodbye to Mum, and hearing him say that when he was next home he wanted to see her up and dressed and eating food! Something she didn’t do, she was having the build up drinks and refused food, we were beginning to despise this gallbladder and everything it was doing to her. Leigh said his goodbyes and off he went. Dad phoned me on the Monday morning and he was upset, he said Mum had been hallucinating all night and had been calling out for me, I told him after the school run I would be there. I got to Mum & Dad’s. poor Dad was worried sick, he told me that Mum had been shouting out all night for me and was seeing things too, this was scary, I went upstairs and walked into the bedroom, I looked at mum who was sleeping, I sat on the bed and looked at her, she was sleeping but was talking in her sleep, I held her hand and felt so deeply sad to see mum this way, my heart was breaking inside. She woke up and was talking to me, she was hallucinating and telling me that their was a TV on the ceiling and could I turn it off, I went along with her, I was terrified. She would drift in and out of sleep and wake up shouting and seeing things, Dad brought her a drink of tea up and she couldn’t even hold the cup. I went out and brought her a feeder cup so she could drink, at night I would lie awake dreading the phone ringing, I began to think about the thought of losing my mum and I would sit in floods of tears just at the thought of it. I continued to go down mums everyday, Dad was on the phone to the Doctor everyday, and they would advise different things. On this particular day, Thursday 25^th June 2009 was the worst day to have ever happened……….The Doctor came out and examined Mum, he asked if she had been in bed since the week before when he saw her last, “No” she said, “I’ve been up and down the stairs all morning” we looked at the Doctor and shook our heads, he examined her and immediately said that he wanted her in hospital, he went downstairs and called an ambulance, dad heard him tell the hospital it was suspected Pneumonia. We immediately got her things together, I phoned my Sister and told her what was happening, the ambulance came and I got in with her, dad and Sue followed behind. Watching Mum be carried down the stairs on the ambulance chair was heartbreaking, she looked so frail and like an ordinary elderly lady, not my Young beautiful Mum………………………..

They rushed Mum through, she was severely dehydrated , 3 bags of saline went into her within 10 minutes, they had to make a hole in her neck so they got it to her quicker, she was so scared but we held her hand and told her to be brave, Mum had severe shakes, she couldn’t keep still, she had been like this for days, the hospital staff were so very concerned, there were 8 staff around her, we just stood back and watched our beautiful Mum go through this, I would have switched places with her in the blink of an eye, not my Mum, please God not my Beautiful Mum…………………….They told us to go and sit in the relatives room as mum was going to have a scan to detect what had made her so poorly, we went outside and my sister, dad and I just cried, we were used to Mum being the strong one, she was always there at times when we needed strength, she never ever complained once in her life, she was just the best Mum in the world, she was going to get through this, she had to, she was a strong lady with the kindest heart in the world. When they told us we were shocked, “we’ve found multiple blood clots on your Wife’s Lungs” nothing and I mean nothing could have ever prepared us for that, we were crushed. They were going to give her an injection to break up the blood clots, they told us it was a high risk, a very high risk due to Mums age, she could have either had a stroke, heart attack or the blood clot could have gone to her brain and……….well, im sure you know the rest. They told us that if anything was going to happen it would do in the next 4 hours, we were sitting on a time bomb, we went back into Mum, she had so many wires and monitors around her, she was shaking and drifting off to sleep then waking, when she looked at us she would try to smile, we all told her that she had been so brave, we had tears in our eyes and at times had to walk away from Mum so she didn’t see.

We sat watching the clock, it was awful, they were booking Mum a bed on Intensive care, with every second the clock ticked we sat watching Mum and praying inside, they gave her the injection at 4pm, at 6pm my Nephew Davis came to see her, she was hallucinating that him and Leigh were crawling around on the floor, it was sad to see the look on David’s face, he stayed a while then left, you could read his thoughts on his face like it was a newspaper, he held his fiancés hand and kissed his Nan, he later told us that his words were “what if that was the last time I got to kiss my Nan” again we were shattered and so desperately numb. The clock was on Mum’s side, it was 8pm and thank the Lord she hadn’t had any of the effects that the Doctor told us all them hours ago, Mum had got through the most critical time of her life, she pulled through, she found the strength that she had always had inside her and had passed to my Sister and I, she fought it, she is 77 at Christmas, and after months in Hospital, intense Physiotherapy that taught her to walk around again she is now home with us……….She is in a wheelchair for journeys outside the house, Dad walks her around the block to gain strength day by day, My Husband and I take her and Dad shopping and Mum and Dad have just booked a week away in October to Llandudno, I think she deserves anything she wants. She has to go to have her blood read for her warfarin medication which she will remain on due to the blood clots, she lost nearly 4 stone throughout her illness and it shows dramatically, I colour her hair and my sister blow dries it, she now has the strength to withstand it again, she has had all rails fitted in the house to assist her recovery, she is alive and that is the best thing ever, I will never ask God for anything else ever in my life, I asked him to please save my Mum, he was looking down on her and decided she must stay because she has so many people in her family who love her……….My Nephew served his tour of Afghanistan, Mum was in Hospital at the time recovering, we never told Leigh everything Mum had gone through, the time when we nearly lost her……until he came home………he surprised Mum by walking into her ward in all his Uniform fresh from Afghanistan, Well Mum screamed with Joy, and tears……………..there were lots, im sure you can imagine. Mum is still waiting for her Gallstones to be removed, she takes one day at a time, has a whole new strict diet so she doesn’t suffer too much………………..But we have her with us, our beautiful Mum, our Precious Mum who has fought and been so courageous all of her days, especially this year, she now looks her age bless her, but her heart is still beating and she remains youthful in her heart……………..Love you Mum so very very much. On the 25^th June Michael Jackson & Farer Fawcett were taken by God which was so sad for their families…………God spared Mum on that same day and everyday I am thankful that I hear my Mums voice over the phone and I get to hug and Kiss her…………..Thank you for reading this about My Mum, she deserves so much more than I could ever give to her, she would be happy with just our Love but I want to tell the whole world how much my Mum has gone through and how she got through this with her determination and the Love she has for all her Family.