Visit to an old friend

Well yesterday (Wed. the 14th) was bittersweet...went to Bedford which is about 50 minutes by train from central London. The reason for going there was to visit a dear old friend - Tom who is 93 and has been a friend of my family since the 2nd World War when he came to Saskatchewan to train for the RAF and befriended my grandparents, my parents and aunt and uncle. He and his wife were friends from that point on and every trip to England I have visited him and his wife - his wife Jean passed away in 1982 but I still have seen him. He is my "uncle" in England. Anyway he fell (slid off his bed) in November and broke his hip and it's been downhill ever since - he now has pneumonia and a chest infection. He is in the rehab unit of a hospital - an area to get patients ready to go home although he will never be going back home to his beloved bungalow... He knew me and was so pleased to see me and even though he is profoundly deaf and cannot see well we managed to communicate by me writing things in a book. Just sitting quietly together holding hands was enough. I stayed with him for about three hours. It is probably the last time I will see him which is very sad. So needless to say I was in a bit of a funk last night and not up to posting in my blog.