A Good Innings

Well Covid finally arrived in our household last week. We had a good innings, dodging it for over two years despite teaching in the shala, playing in a few different orchestras, training both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (me) and in the gym (Suzanne), and our kids going to school, gymnastics, ballet and playing with their friends every day.

Last week Suzanne had a positive test which meant that she was neither able to teach in the shala nor play in the orchestra for an opera (Tosca) that she was supposed to be doing in the Bord Gais Theatre. So I had to step in and play in the orchestra instead of her (that's the benefit of us both playing the same instrument!), teach some of the classes and also get some cover for the rest.

Thanks to Des Doris for stepping in and teaching two classes at the shala already this week at very short notice. He'll be teaching again tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

So far I've managed to avoid becoming infected and so I've been able to keep going. Our 9-year-old daughter, Molly, tested positive a couple of days ago and our 6-year-old, Anna, has avoided it too, for now. So we have one Covid and one non-Covid bedroom in our apartment now.

Filling in for Suzanne in the opera orchestra has been pretty stressful seeing as she did almost all of the rehearsals before she got sick. I managed to get one rehearsal and one run-through of the opera under my belt before opening night on Monday but I really could have done with a bit more time to get to grips with the whole thing. I'll get another chance tonight at least (albeit in another performance as opposed to a rehearsal!).

In other news, I spent yesterday afternoon with my mother, my sister and her family (outdoors, socially distanced) scattering my Dad's ashes on the beach which he requested us to do before he passed away. In case you're new to our mailing list you might not know that my Dad passed away in August 2020 but donated his body to the medical school of University College Dublin. So we cremated him a few weeks ago. My sister who lives in Paris couldn't attend because, tragically, she had covid that week, so it was nice that she and her family were able to be there yesterday.

That's the final instalment for us of a saga that has gone on since February 2020 when Dad started showing real signs of the illness which caused his death (Motor Neurone Disease, in case you were wondering). I can honestly say it's been the hardest two-and-a-bit years of my life between the pandemic, and all the uncertainty that has caused, coupled with my lovely Dad being sick and dying.

But we're still standing. Still practising. Still teaching. Still playing music. Life goes on. I'm lucky to have had a wonderful childhood, a nurturing family, and some fantastic memories of growing up with a Dad who made me laugh more than anyone else I've ever met.