Another year over and a new one just begun. Personally, I’m hoping for a slightly better 2012 than 2011 was for purely selfish reasons.
2011 began with me still in a wheelchair and only 2 months since my crash on Macquarie Pass. My wife was still suffering the debilitating effects of Graves Disease, a thyroid ailment, and was being treated for that plus trying to care for a seriously injured husband. Her mother had passed away a month before and the house was still filled with memories and memorabilia of her with which she had neither the time nor the inclination to deal.
Then, in February, her brother suddenly passed away with liver failure after a long battle with alcoholism. He was only 55, younger than her. To say that the family was devastated again is an understatement.
For her, the rest of the year has consisted of dealing with the after-effects, both physical and emotional of these two upheavals, plus becoming the sole bread-winner in the household. Rushing home from work to care for an invalid partner when you’re already exhausted is not a recipe for a wonderful life. Still, we managed it and trying to ensure that she didn’t have to bear the burden entirely alone was one of the main catalysts for my recovery.
That and her inspired suggestion that I “try and restore that old bike out the back”. If ever there was a project that would cover all the necessary bases in my recovery, physical, emotional and psychological, that was it.
So the year consisted of my frenetic attempts to do anything and everything that would take me from being a wheelchair-bound dependent into a fully functioning human being again. And, I’m pleased to say that, while the leg is still not fully recovered (it may take another year, at least, my physio people tell me) I can now do pretty much what I want, within those limitations.
And, 2012 should be the year where I bring my project to fruition and see it on display (and, hopefully, ridden), at the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway on the last weekend in March. It has been a labour of love and a community project that has eerily mimicked the bike’s original construction.
So, can 2012 be better? Of course it can, and I’m going to do everything within my power to ensure that it is. To all my readers, both my “regulars” and the “casuals” who just drop in from time to time, thank you for your support and encouragement and may I wish you the very best that life can offer you in 2012.
Watch this space.