My girl is stretched out on a hospital bed before me. Machines are whirling and whistling all around her. Lights are flashing and blinking.
It reminds me of a Christmas tree except it’s not Christmas time, she’s been injured, and she’s been injured badly. Her face is wrapped up in bandages, her body is cocooned too, even her beautiful hands are restrained and mummified by thick white bandages.
The only part of her I can see are her big green eyes fringed by thick dark lashes. I bend down and kiss her gently on her bandaged forehead, and whisper in her ear that I love her and I’m here for her.
She motions to me that she wants to write something. The physiotherapists have been teaching us to communicate with each other. She has a ‘communication board’ and using this, she can say yes (or no) and let the nurses know when she’s too hot, when she wants a drink, what the pain is like. For someone as verbal as Turia, I think it would be immensely frustrating.
I grab the communication board and she shakes her head vehemently. Rightio. I grab her whiteboard and she nods up and down yes. Because she can’t grip, I have to tape a texta to her right hand.
Painstakingly, and in capital letters, she writes:
YOU HAVE SCUT IN YOUR EAR.
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Michael* wrote this piece about me a little while ago.
It cracks me up.
Because people don’t always behave the way you expect, do they?
Not me, not Michael (well, actually, he was behaving pretty much as expected – and damn near perfectly – in this scenario!), not you, not your partner, your boss, your employees, your Mum or your friends.
That’s OK.
That’s just part of being in a relationship.
I talk about navigating relationships, and their impact on your happiness in more detail inside my new book Happy (and other ridiculous aspirations).
I am so pumped to share it with you.
It’s been a massive labour of love (read: a highly-caffeinated, furiously typed, late night process) and I’m really proud of the end result. I think you’ll get a lot out of it.
So, until next week,
Turia
*OK. Obviously, I wrote it. You are in MY letter gang after all ?
Am I a sicko for writing this story from his perspective?! Yes. Yes, I am ?
PS. Is your inbox not going “ding!” with a new letter from me each Thursday? You gotta join the letter gang mate! It’s the best thing I do every week – and very often, the best thing landing in inboxes across the country. Join us here. We love new gang members!
