[FLYING BANANA]

7 years ago today my wife and I went shopping, just an ordinary day, nothing special planned. But it was not going to end as we had wanted it to be. For the next time my Val would come back to our flat would be when the hearse brought her home in 2011.

You learn to cope, you learn the hard way. Don't put all the washing in together, otherwise you end up with funny coloured shirts. Cooking would never be a problem as Mum had taught me the basics and Val the fancy stuff. But it did not stop me cremating a few things or preparing everything to go into the slow cooker, then forgetting to switch it on. Thus spending 8 hours at the hospital and having a cheese sandwich for dinner.

You learn to adapt to your shopping needs, shopping for one not two. Looking for the instructions on how to use the vacuum cleaner, as you need a Phd to figure out where the ON button is. Changing the sheets on the bed was once a two person operation, but now you learn to do it yourself. I still struggle with the duvet cover. No matter how many times I have been shown how easy it is to do.

You cope with having a friend staying over, and you give them your bed whilst you sleep on the emergency bed in the front room. Remembering not to walk around in the nude, and to lock the bathroom door, whilst they are there. You yearn for company but only in the evenings, as the evenings are the loneliest.

You spend 10 weeks travelling back and forwards to the Royal London Hospital living in hope that Val would be coming home soon. Your heart skips a beat when told that she is being moved to King Georges Hospital so to be nearer to home. Not long now Val and you will be home. You start making plans. We'll move into a ground floor home and I'll look after you. You learn different skills only to have your hopes dashed. 6 weeks in KG and now she is being moved into Meadow Court a residential nursing home.

You learn with having to deal with the news that Val's car is stolen outside home. You deal with the news that police will not be looking for it. Then you learn how you are going to tell her that her Fiesta has gone. But you are not prepared for her answer, "We'll have to get another Rover then", she said.

You learn not to show your emotions slip through. Chin up and keep smiling through. Soon be home sweetheart, but not as you would have wanted, not in the back of a hearse.

There is not a day that goes by that I do not forget. But you just learn to cope the best you can.