The calm before the storm and some devastating news - 2015 - A year in review

APRIL 2015 - Part 4 of 12

With one of the major events of the year out of the way, April felt a bit like “the calm before the storm”, as I spent most of the working month getting everything ready in the firm ahead of the BTMK takeover on May 1^st. The aim is to expand their Private Client department into one of the strongest and biggest in the South East and I am looking forward to the challenge.

There was however, one piece of devastating news; I took Dad to the Oncology clinic for the results of his Prostate Cancer tests. Unfortunately, it had not responded to treatment and had now spread into the bone. Because of his hyper-sensitivity to medication of pretty much all forms (even anti-nausea tablets made him sick) and generally due to his frailty (his weight had dropped from over 11 stone before Christmas to about 8 stone now), we were told that there was nothing more that could be done for him and it was just a case of keeping him comfortable for as long as he had left, whether that be weeks, months or years.

I guess it’s what I had expected but it still isn't easy to hear. Death is inevitable, one of the only certainties in life, but even though we know we can’t avoid it, we never seem to be prepared to deal with it when it happens. The doctors were unable to be more precise, but I think with Dad having zero appetite and eating barely enough to feed a sparrow, deep down I knew that it wasn't going to be all that long.

So most of my spare time in April was spent supporting Mum and making sure she was nourished and well enough to continue looking after Dad and keeping him as comfortable as could be.

Aside from that, which made this month quite an emotionally draining one, I took some cheer from the rising fortunes of Southend United, who won every game in April. The highlight of this month was a trip down to Exeter by plane for a load of us for a legendary weekend in which the game was secondary, but nonetheless we won with an injury time goal which had brought the impossible dream ever closer. 

At the end of March, we had needed to win our last 8 games to stand a chance of automatic promotion and as we had won 5 and then went on to win the next two matches, we were in third position going into the last game of the season, away at Morecambe on May 2^nd and a win would guarantee League One football next season. A crowd of us were going to go up on a charter flight put on by the club, and we had sold over 2200 tickets, meaning the crowd would be approximately 50/50 split between Morecambe and Southend fans. We had never beaten them before in a league game in 9 attempts, but surely with such a voracious away following and with them having nothing to play for, this would be our day?