Ding-a-ling!

Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!

Over the last few days, the sound of a brass school bell emanating from our bedroom has repeatedly put a smile on my face. And "No!", hahaaa, it's not some kinky role-playing going on here, it's Gina's way of alerting me that she needs help or assistance while she is bed-bound and voiceless due to the flu.

So, why do I smile when she is suffering so much that she can barely sleep from coughing so much and has completely lost her voice? Well, "No" again, its not because I am glad for the "peace and quiet"! LOL!

The school bell was bought on a whim, many years ago, when we lived in Bath. We popped into one of the many wonderful gift shops there, saw this lovely brass bell and bought it. We just liked it. Little did we know that years later it would be used frequently while Gina lay in bed for over 12 months between 2007 and 2008, barely coherent following a sudden and mysterious illness that had her rushed into hospital where they literally had minutes to save her life and then spent 3 days and nights in the emergency assessment unit while I sat there watching her decide wether or not to stay here or move on to whatever comes next after life. Even now, if there is a hospital scene in a film where someone is hooked up to machines and looks like they are about to die, I get a lump in my throat and tears well up in my eyes as I vividly remember what Gina went through at the time.

When she came out of hospital, there was a lot of adjusting to do in our lives. Gina, a strong, active and passionate person, basically became a prisoner of her own body with absolutely no end in sight, no answers from the specialists and little improvement seen, even after 12 months. During that period there were a few times when the school bell came in very handy. At the time it was a mechanism, something to alert me to a need or a problem. It was practical and it worked. Not something to celebrate or smile about at all.

Now, when I hear the bell I smile because our life since then has been about second chances and not taking anything for granted.

In a funny way, the bell is sort of an ironic joke. It's used as an alert for problems but it also makes me feel grateful that she's here to ring the bell in the first place and it represents unbelievable amounts of joy. It still represents the happiness when we bought it, how we have loved it and kept it on our bookshelves for years, the fact that it was part of a time of great uncertainty and worry when she was barely able to think and speak for over a year, the reminder that it was put back on the book shelves when those times suddenly came to an end on the day that Gina woke up and was suddenly able to think clearly again, was completely focused as before and determined to finish her work on Utamaro. Over the last two years, to see her flourish and succeed at a phenomenal rate has been so amazing that I don't have the words to describe how I feel when I watch the words flow out of her in an endless stream of creativity. Astounding.

Gina's second novel, The Delightful Undoing of Patricia Enid Guppy, is out in June and she was working on two, yes two(!), other novels just before she fell ill 3 weeks ago. All this, and her second Utamaro book has just been published just a couple of months ago as well, my mind boggles at the very thought of it!

So, back to the bell. Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling. We ring the bell for fun sometimes too, not just when Gina is ill, so I hope that I get to hear it ring for many, many, many more years to come yet. That's certainly something to smile about, isn't it?