Tuesday 21 October 2008

Page 136

We were now able to close Sheila`s bank account. Her life insurance had now been paid out. Inland Revenue informed, in fact we had done everything. The only thing outstanding was a request by her car insurance people for the whereabouts of her car. Indeed this was something we all would like to know. They had also checked with the police and the garage that towed it away but everyone pleaded innocence.

Time passed we were slowly coming to terms with the loss of Sheila. Lesley`s relationship with Jim seemed to be serious. Finally Ian had sold the house and Lesley received her share of the profits, much less than she should have had . Steve was getting a bit fed up with working at Sidal. It was quite dangerous working with the sheets of Aluminium and Stainless steel as he found out. Him and a workmate were moving a sheet of aluminium when it was dropped on to Steve`s foot, bearing in mind these sheets were 8` x 4` and weighed 1/4 of a tonne very heavy and sharp. He was rushed to hospital convinced his toes might be severed ,so much so he was scared to take his boot off..

He was finally seen by the Doctor and found that he had crushed several toes and his big toe looked like it had burst, he had to have 25 stitches in his big toe. They were xrayed and then dressed. He would be off work for a while. He was in a lot of pain.

The first anniversary of Sheila`s accident came round , it was the saddest time, we took some flowers to the crematorium and checked in the chapel and yes the book was open at 24th October 1985.

Christmas came and went nothing very much happened it was quite uneventful thank goodness.Around easter time Steve applied for a job at Kodak, in the warehouse and was successful. He was glad to get away from the aluminium and Stainless Steel, the accident had unnerved him.

Dennis had been thrown out of the house in Woodhall Farm for taking drugs and he was staying at various friends houses. I suggested he talk to the people at Druglink to see if they could help him with accomodation. They suggested he contact Circle 33 the housing association to try and get on the list. If he managed this ,then they would be able to help him get to the top of the list because he was homeless. Things were differant then to now. He asked me if I would go with him for moral support, which I did. I was so surprised the person we had to see was a really good friend of mine, from when I worked at Dept. of the Environment. She was now in charge of lettings for the association. This hopefully may help. Dennis filled in all the forms required and Pat said he would hear in due course. She said he was lucky because they had just purchased two more blocks of flats from the council and when that was finalised there would be quite a few flats up for grabs. We left and Pat and I arranged to meet for lunch the following week to catch up. Bearing in mind I hadnt seen her for about 10 years but we had been really good friends.

A month later Dennis rang me to say he had received a letter from Circle33 via Druglink offering him a first floor, one bedroom flat in Woodhall Farm. He said he would come round that evening as he would then have the keys and we could go and see what we thought about it. We would have to find him some furniture .There were a couple of charities one I believe called Help who specialised in providing secondhand furniture for free.

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