ABSTRACT
When Paul and Liz were going to be married they came to my church and then came to my home group at my house with some other people. During that time I got to know them and I went to their wedding, and from there on we became good friends. Paul was always very much “there” in our home group; a great talker, he was always leading us off on tangents all sorts of things and Liz was always bringing him back again. He was a wonderful chap and everyone loved him. On one occasion he took a wonderful photo of the entire group which he gave to one of our ladies, Betty, who had to move. She always had it by her bed, the picture he took; that was the kind of man he was. He was very kind and I know he did other wonderful things within the church, but he certainly enriched our group. And we went to different things to hear him singing and became part of his and Liz’s life. So when he had the stroke we were all devastated. There was no thought that we wouldn’t be with him. We always think about him in our group, we always pray for him and we visit him and we keep in contact with Liz. We have been on the journey with Paul. First of all we were so devastated, we did not know what was going to happen, but gradually we have been encouraged as we have seen him at Raphael improving and always so upbeat. We don’t see the sad side I am sure he must have. When I see him he always has a joke for me – it might be a bit rude, it might not – and I write it down as he blinks it. He always has a joke for me and we have a nice rapport really. I have known him for over 17 years. I found out about the stroke as Liz came round to see me – we didn’t know how serious it was at that time – and from then on I visited him frequently. It was shattering to see him in ICU; we didn’t know what was going to happen. We thought he was going to go to another place at first, Putney, and we thought “Oh no”, but he went to the Raphael Hospital – that was the very best thing for him. The relationship we have is due to our faith, which is very important 59to us, as it is to Paul and Liz. When Paul finally comes home we aim to have the home group at his and Liz’s home so that Paul can once again be a part of it.
