Page 14 - She's One Crazy Lady!

I valued h“
being one of them!
Our chats were more about facing truths, being realistic and, above
er thoughts and opinions as this was an area I found hard to talk about with
all, keeping positive; devising coping strategies and getting our lives in some kind of order, deciding what was important and what wasn’t. At the time, I was having huge, unsettling issues about returning to school where I’d, earlier in the year, secured the post as headteacher. With Sue and I having very different jobs, her perceptions about what was happening with me were down to earth and very logical. I valued her thoughts and opinions as this was an area I found hard to talk about to with others.
Getting round to our hobbies, we often discussed paintings and art, for Sue was a talented artist and I loved teaching art. We discovered we shared a love of pigs! Sue found it very amusing that I had a pot-bellied pig named after me years ago when I was seconded, just for a week, to work at local children’s animal farm – an educational farm that was to support our charity many years later. I also had dozens of model pigs around my home, the fatter the better! Sue would take famous paintings and change the faces to those of pigs, her favourites being the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and The Scream by Edvard Munch, which she gave a copy of to the chemo staff to remind them of how she felt when they approached her with her personally prepared tray of cocktail drugs and needles.
Yes, Sue and I would talk for hours and with the idea of raising funds for local breast cancer care being relatively new, she was excited and quickly got involved and, being the livewire she was, thoroughly enjoyed attending some of our events, rounding up support and chatting to members of the public. Sue eagerly attended our Crazy Hats Day by coming along to Kettering General Hospital with us, sporting a very upbeat and colourful hat that showed her love of painting. I vividly remember one day when we had been selling Christmas cards at a school fete. The school was next to the local fire station. On the way home Sue suddenly drove into the station forecourt and proceeded to press the ‘shout’ button on the wall. What was she doing? Firemen appeared from all directions and there stood Sue with a collection pot saying: “Come on, support Crazy Hats, you’ve all got wives, girlfriends, partners...” She’d certainly got their attention and they were very generous! They loved it! Embarrassed as I was, I truly admired her.
All this while we were receiving chemotherapy!
Shortly after her chemo had finished, Sue confided in me that she didn’t feel well. Unwell in a way she hadn’t felt before and couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was that was making her feel as she did. After endless
othe”
rs.
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