Hi Folks
Today the medical team told us that Frank is stable enough to leave the hospital but too sleepy to go to a rehab center. So the plans for this week are transference to the nursing home Margriet (in the center of nijmegen) and there Frank will recieve reactivation treatment. This is not the place were we want Frank to end up (minimal privacy, rather old fashioned nursing home with no single person rooms). So we've indicated that we want Frank to find shelter in the nursing home Kalorama. There's no place right now, so Frank needs to make a stop halfway. It is not the most optimal solution, but the best in the end. It will happen somewhere this week, I'll post the adress as soon as I know more.
We receive a lot of mails from friends who visited Frank, with things he said or told. And although he's only about 30-60 min/day awake, if we put all the information behind each other, it feels as if Frank talks to us; some noteworthy things of today
He wants to have his book on uniforms (matthieu), he made clear what he wants with his wargames in case he deteriorates (niek), he want to have his nightcap, whiskey "it's behind the cupboard in the livingroom...." and "what is the www from my website?"(esther), he shaved his face for aprox. 10 secs but did it well (nurse). It's incredible that the comunication is shattered to such small pieces for someone who is so fluent and articulate as Frank. It's weired that he somehow now speaks through our mouthes.
We also recieved a loving wish for Frank from one of his guild friends. We share it with all of you since Greame wanted to post it on the blog, but didn't manage to get it there. Hopefully it works well for you another time. Thanks for your thoughtful wishes.
Frank,
Just to let you know that all those who went with you on the Guild Tour to South Africa are rooting for you. John the Waterloo man from America, Kirk from Canada, Scottie, Bob Brunsdon those two English policemen, your great friend Wybo from Arnhem, Paul Naish from Durban who we saw in tears on the final night, Ali, Graeme & Graham from Essex, Steve and Dennis from Australia, Rob, Pat and Dalton from Isandlwana Lodge and Ron and Sandy Gold who presented you with the Zulu Spear as the Winner of the Tour Quiz.
Get well soon friend as there is still much military history for you to discover and beers to take with your friends in the Guild.
Greame Cooper
That's it for today on our behalf,
The best for you all and don't forget there's mass tomorrow at 7.00 am in st pauls basilica in Rome, let us be there together in spirit sending all our love to Frank.
Esther
I have to admit I'm confused about what 'making a stop half way' means. Will Frank move to Margriet before he moves to Kalorama, or will he remain at the Radboud until Kalorama has a place for him?
BeantwoordenVerwijderenFot those who wish to see a couple of pics we took of Frank at the Cranwell trip last weekend of March, please go to: www.webshots.com and look for an album called: 2011-04-05 GBG at RAF Cranwell
BeantwoordenVerwijderenwillem
From my one visit on Thursday 31 March I got the distinct impression the old Frank is still very much "there", he just has a lot of trouble keeping all the bits and pieces of him together. Literally the very first thing he said to me was something about "plundering", a reference to a very very old joke of ours - Frank and his collective friends - that we would be fighting to be first to plunder his game and book collection if something happened to him. (Somehow it's not funny anymore.) He also managed to spend a few words on a short but to the point game critique - "Rubbish! Unhistorical!"
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI think Frank may surprise us yet. He's a stubborn old coot, he is!
Walter
To renses post: A stop halfway indeed means going to margriet and wait there for a place in kalorama....... It is unfortunately not different.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenTo walters post: indeed there is a lot intact inside his magnificent head, one of his friends replyed to the first post with a thougt and quoted some well known lines frequently exchanged in casus belli and frank perfectly answered the predicted words....
dit is de link naar het foto album met enkele foto's van Frank gemaakt weekend 26/27 maart jl.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenhttp://travel.webshots.com/album/580006749IWgCtU
"If the guide doesn't know, just ask Frank..." That really sums him up, doesn't it. Frank is (and I say it deliberately) a walking, talking encyclopaedia of military history. I sometimes wonder how many museum curators and historians he has reduced to tears over the years. He's not so much a fountain of knowledge as a Niagara Falls, and it's quite the experience to stand under it ;-).
BeantwoordenVerwijderenWalter