Heather had always tried to live a healthy lifestyle, even turning down freshly made cakes at school lunchtime. She did twice-weekly yoga sessions and took vitamins, things that might benefit her mum, too. After Renee’s diagnosis, Heather visited her local health food store to buy organic fruit and vegetables, and she read online about homeopathic remedies. She implemented a new healthy-lifestyle regimen for them both.
One day, Heather was helping out at a school Christmas fair when one of the parents insisted on reading her tarot cards.
“You’re currently looking after someone close to you who’s very poorly,” the woman said. “Your love is helping them to recover. Keep doing what you’re doing and things will get better.”
Heather had never really believed in such stuff, but the words gave her hope and she clung onto them as things got tougher.
Her mum slept sporadically, no longer sure if it was day or night, meaning that Heather couldn’t sleep either. She found herself yawning in lessons and got migraines for the first time in her life. She tried to organize her mum in the same way she did her classes, explaining things clearly and firmly, only for the information to fade from Renee’s grasp within seconds. Heather went into school with a sense of dread, hating to leave her mum home alone and relying on neighbors to check in on her throughout the day.
One of the things the two women still enjoyed together was listening to the radio. Renee’s short-term memory might be faulty, but she could still remember songs and lyrics from the past. She and Heather sang Beatles songs together and listened toJust Ask Ginny, discussing other people’s problems while unable to resolve their own.
As doctors delivered yet more unsettling news about Renee’s health, Heather turned to alternative therapies even more. She paid for Reiki treatments for her mum and also tried aromatherapy. She downloaded brain training apps on her phone and tried to get Renee to give them a go. Somethinghadto help.
Soon, Heather was running on empty and struggling to function. The kids pointed out her wrong answers to sums in math class and Heather fumbled to correct her workings out.
While attending yet another hospital appointment, a doctor had told her, “Your mother needs specialist around-the-clock care and you can’t offer her that. You also need a break.”
“I’m absolutely fine,” Heather said, even though her body felt like it was encased in concrete.
“You’re heading for a breakdown,” the doctor said firmly. “Then you’ll need specialist care, too.”
Heather broke down in front of him and couldn’t stop crying. As tears dribbled down her cheeks, she knew deep down that he was right.
“Take a holiday,” he said. “You need to look after your own health as well as your mum’s.”
“Mum’s is more important.”
“Everyone’s needs are the same. Don’t neglect yours.”
Heather knew she couldn’t afford a vacation and felt like she didn’t deserve one.
On the day Renee moved in to residential care, Heather felt like she’d failed as a daughter and a human being. She’d curled up on the sofa and cried, needing to hear some positive news for once.
A message from the radio came through instead. Advice expert Ginny Splinter was inviting four heartbroken strangers to join her in Italy, and Heather felt like the invitation was meant forher. It had to be a sign.
Here in Italy, Heather knew her mum was safe and being well-looked after, and that friends and family were also helping out, but there had to be somethingmoreshe could do. Some hope, some answer, some new way forward that would help Renee become the woman she once was.
Shopping, hiking and art had offered Heather a distraction for a while and now she needed assistance of a more spiritual kind.
When she spotted a tiny white feather on the floor of her room, she picked it up and cupped it in her hands. She desperately wanted to believe it was a sign from the universe, telling her that things were going to get better. All she could do was keep hoping and trying.
16
Quilt
Edna placed her handbag on a table in the courtyard and set out a line of needles and reels of cotton. She took out several paperback-sized pieces of fabric and weighed them down with small stones. “I’m sure a day spent sewing will do us all a world of good,” she said.
Heather stared at her display. “Did you bring all those things with you?”
“They don’t weigh a lot and I like to sew.”
Ginny, Eric, Heather and Curtis sat down on chairs surrounding Edna and awaited her instructions.
Heather stroked a piece of material. “I could make a kimono if the pieces were prettier,” she mused.
“We’re making a quilt,” Edna said firmly. She passed pieces of fabric to them all.
Curtis’s face was blank. “I don’t understand crafts,” he said. “Why would anyone try to make something you can buy from a shop? I like stuff with labels.”
