Friends - Cardinal Clinic
After Richards death I went back
to work, but about 4 months later my ability to work ground to a steady
halt. I found that I was actually unable to focus my mind on anything at
all. I just seemed to be totally exhausted, so off I trotted down to the
doctor to try and get a "pick-me-up" and get back the energy I seemed
to be lacking. My doctor took almost one look and instantly diagnosed that
a rest cure would be a perfect remedy.
So began my acquaintance with depression - and the realisation of just how totally ignorant
most of us are when it comes to understanding it. I had always
associated depression with sadness, feeling blue and so on, and never
realised how little I understood about the subject.
As a result of this, I went to the Cardinal - to whom I shall be for
ever grateful - in order to be revitalised. Yes, here was I - a normal
person just feeling weary - in a clinic and having to accept that I was ill -
not physically ill, but brain ill, mentally ill.
I am not going to go into the ins and outs of the three weeks I spent at the
Cardinal - but there was a group of about five of us who became friends during
this period - all of us there for different reasons - stress or depression
related in the main - and we have continued to see each other ever since.
One of us, John, also has a private pilot's licence - so on one of our
'regular' meetings we arranged to all go for a flip in John's plane.... and the
pictures of that day are here ... So Maria, Trish, John, Chris and Aneko and
myself all
became aviators for the day....
