I’m all action-packed out and now I’m not feeling too chipper .
You know the thing – gallons of snot , thick head ,hot ,cold, and weedy …I fight against feeling weedy , so I’m finding it hard .But it is half-term and the sun is shining and even though I’ve had to cancel a fabulous walk across the cliffs from Hastings to Rye ,I’ve done my Mindfulness and am trying to keep above 3 on my inbuilt chipper-radar .I’m about 2.3 at the moment .
So yesterday ,I managed a walk in Richmond Park and caught up with stuff .The best bit of stuff was watching BBC2’s ‘Modern Times’ – documenting the famous actor Warwick Davis gamble of putting his money on the line to set up ‘The Reduced Height Theatre Company’. It was brilliant .
I was born into a family with a short person , so never knew anything different .Jane was 3’11’ ( swore she was 4′ ,but the docs always said no ) , Richard was around 6.5” ( fully gown!) and Mum ,Dad and I were somewhere it the middle – to me that was normal .People stared ,I always stared back and would never give in .Jane and I would think of witty things to say to them ,then never had the balls to say them .I think our strategy was humour ,laughter ,bravado and telling ourselves it’s them with the problem …and the ability to walk,run,wheel away , very quickly .
But the bit in the programme that really resonated with me ,was the fact that because of these people’s restricted growth ,they have many additional health problems ,especially concerning their spines and hips .It was heartbreaking hearing about their pain ,their fears ,their paralysis ,their surgery their constant visits to the hospital .
During the making of the programme Warwick Davis’s lovely wife, Sam, had to undergo spinal surgery to alleviate the compression of bone on her spinal cord ( a very similar op to the ones Jane had ) .One of his children was asked by a school friend ,’what is like inside a hospital ?’ as they had never been in one .His daughter was shocked as she hadn’t gone a week without being in one ! It took me right back to the days of Jane’s ( Mum and I ) monthly visits to Great Ormond Street and I was such a selfish little cow, all I could remember was the tube journey , the fish-tank in the entrance hall and the visit to Lyons Corner House afterwards