A Long December…

… and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last…

Every December I make it my mission to quote the Counting Crows’ Long December at least once. Sometimes I quote it twice, and last year? At least three times – and not just because I was particularly bad at titling my blog posts last year, either (although that was also the case). Last December was a particularly long one, filled, as it was with “the smell of hospitals in winter/ and the feeling that it’s all a lot of oysters with no pearls”. Last year, though, was also the first time that the hope expressed in that song (which I can now hardly listen to, by the way), actually came true. This year actually was better than the last, and it’s all because of the events of December 15th, 2005: T-Day.

Today is the one year anniversary of Terry’s transplant. It’s the three year anniversary of our engagement. It’s Terry’s Name Day, in Greece. (It’s also the day Dylan and Sky got engaged in Neighbours, but honestly? I don’t think that’s going to last, personally.). A big, important day, then. A T-Day, if you will. This time last year, Terry was still in theatre (that’s the operating theatre, by the way – he wasn’t treading the boards), and I was still sitting in the reception of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, staring at that scuffed bit on the toe of my boot and hoping I wouldn’t throw up. (Note to self: get boots fixed, because, seriously, Amber, that’s been a YEAR now already…) I think I said everything I need to say about this on the six month anniversary of T-Day, and, really, there’s only so many ways you can say “God, I’m glad that’s over with!” But I am. Very, very glad – and I’m glad, too, that, rather than being the year of hospital visits that I thought it would be, this year has actually been very much like “normal” life, resumed.

Happy T-Day, Terry. Don’t order the steak when I take you to dinner tonight to celebrate…