As good as it gets .

[NoraB]

the last two days she was in a bad mood over something as daft as the thought that I might not do anything special for Valentine’s Day because I said I hadn’t thought about it when asked , this blew up into an argument which I could really do without, I’m not sure if it’s the menopause or being ill so much but I hate the tension.

Hormone imbalance and illness makes for cranky partner Buster. My advice? Build yourself a big shed - with electrics - and make this your man pod until her hormones settle into their new 'norm'.

I still feel weepy at least once a day about my mum but my partner didn’t get on with her so if I try and tell her how I’m feeling she either shuts down completely or says it’s my fault for not grieving and bottling it up , my mum wasn’t good to her when we were younger especially if she didn’t get her own way so I do understand but I did desperately wanted them to make up before she died , my partner did try to help her on quite a few occasions and my mum used to talk very fondly of her but I guess she had forgotten how she’d treated her before .

Sorry your partner is being like this with you Buster. I empathise with her re illness and the meno but no matter what her relationship was with your mum, this is your mother, and I don't think some emotional support and compassion is too much to ask from your partner regardless of her personal feelings towards your mum. Maybe she is just too wrapped up in her own shit to see this?

This Morning I walked the dogs down the flooded river Trent it was a beautiful morning and sunrise but all I could think was one step off the bank and it all stops.

I can empathise totally, only it's the sea with me.

Thing is Buster, you know your hounds would get you out of the river if you went in and then you'd have to walk home sopping wet mate, ya get me?

Whatever you don't have in your life, at the moment, those dogs are with you and they will love you through your grief.

not seeing my daughters or grandkids is torture just day in day out of the same trudging through sludge , normally there would be a glimmer of hope that come spring we’d be off down the coast but I have no idea when things will get better with covid going on

My first (and only) grandson is one in a few weeks, and I've only 'seen' him about 3 times before COVID restrictions prevented it. I miss that little boy so much! I haven't been able to hug him or my sons. I miss them so much it physically hurts. But the end is in sight. Things will gradually get better. There will be an end to this. Or at least a return to some kind of normality.

You'll be OK Buster. Remember, man-shed.