2022, better late than never…

A bit late in writing this but with a complete lack of caravanning this year it seemed a bit pointless writing as 2022 drew to a close.

I say a complete lack of caravanning, that bit is a white lie, we lived in our van for 8.5 months whilst working on site at Burrs Country Park. What we didn’t get in 2022 was time away in the caravan.

2022 started well, like most other years working for the club we spent 6 weeks in Lanzarote. Still with Covid restrictions the island was quiet, it was lovely, restrictions were just starting to lift as we were getting ready to leave and our final week saw more people arrive.

Back from Lanzarote, time to get ready to go back to work. 2 days before we were due to head up to Lancashire saw me admitted to hospital with chest pains. Flashing blue lights and sirens all the way. Rushed through A&E and on a heart monitor within minutes. Several scans and other tests with a couple of days in hospital and my heart was given the all clear. I returned home with a diagnosis of stress and a suitcase full of pills.

We arrived at Burrs Country Park a week late due to my hospitalisation. A very different site to others we’ve worked. Quieter in the week with bonkers busy weekends. We’d specifically requested Burrs so that I could be near my parents, due to Covid, I felt that I’d missed two years of their lives. It’s 16 years since we’d moved away from this area, it felt good catching up with old friends and taking my mum shopping again.

Sally, my boss, taught me to crochet. I’m not sure she realised the importance of the hours she gave me whilst trying to explain and correct my mistakes. Little did I know it but crocheting was to become my life saver as I headed towards the toughest months of my life so far.

12.50 on a Thursday at the end of May and my life changed. I don’t normally answer my phone during working hours. Today, ten minutes before our first arrivals were due, I answered my phone. It was my mum, my dad had just passed away. This is where my new found love of crocheting saved me.

Our season at Burrs continued, very differently to how we’d imagined, no trips away in the van, not as many trips home. I just wanted to spend time with my mum. I’m glad that I was able to do that on my days off. They say everything happens for a reason and I believe we were meant to be at Burrs Country Park for what was to be our last season with the club.

Taking stock of life after Dad passed away, made me realise that life is short. Steve would’ve ended our career with the club a couple of season’s earlier but I wanted to keep going. Now, life seemed very different. Dad was only 24 years older than me, that’s 24 summers, not much when you look at it like that. Did I want to give any more of those summers to the club? My answer didn’t take much thinking about. No. We aren’t all lucky enough to live to the grand old age of 80, like Dad did. I might not be blessed with the 24 summers until I get to 80 so we made the very easy decision that at the end of the season we were going to hang up our ear defenders and take early retirement.

And that’s just what we did, we boxed our uniform up and waved goodbye to our time with the club at the end of November 2022. Sat here now in June 2023, it really has taken me 6 months to write this blog, it was the right decision. We’ve spent time making the house we down sized to in 2020, a home. We were able to help our youngest Jellybean fledge the nest, something we weren’t able to do when our eldest left home. We’ve had time with our girls, I’m loving being back in their lives. We’ve had people come to visit and stay, we’ve visited people… we’ve begun to live again.

In memory of my lovely Dad, I’m determined that however many years we have left we will appreciate them and make the most of every second.

You’re only dancing in this earth a short while – Cat Stevens