Tag Archives: IRL Update

Unlike most people covid and lockdown were as hectic as anything for me. Since I run an online hobby and craft supplies business, my workload tripled as people started, or continued hobbies to stave off the mild insanity of being house bound (which I felt several years earlier, when my physical condition was at its worse).

At first I was using writing, making the audiobook podcast, and live streaming on Twitch to de-stress myself, and relieve the monotony of home, work, post office, home, but I hit a snag… Several actually. The mildest was I got writers block with the fight scenes in chapters 7 & 8, and the worst was that my mother-in-law passed away.

After having a massive stroke, she chose to pass on through non-intervention. As well as being totally paralyzed down one side of her body, she had a bleed in her stomach, and a blood clot on her lung. As an ex-nurse she knew that treating one would make the other worse, and she’d always said she didn’t want to linger.

I remember when my husband phoned me to tell me her decision, I was in the car park for Morrison’s and the post office, and I could tell from his voice that he was desperately trying not to cry, we both were… As soon as he ended the call I sobbed my heart out.

Non-intervention means no treatment, and also no food just water, as she refused a feeding tube, so it was several weeks before she actually passed. However, that did mean that even with strict covid visiting rules, she had the chance to say goodbye to all her close family.

The lockdown before Christmas 2020 meant that it was almost a month before we were allowed to have the funeral, and only 30 people were allowed to attend, which includes all the funeral staff and the vicar. Then we had to go through probate, clear a large 4 bedroom house, put it up for sale, etc, which was unbelievably hard work, both physically and emotionally.

We were planning on having a memorial in June for all her dog walking, motor caravaning, and church knitting club friends, but lockdown hit again. We closed the sale of the house in August, and we finally managed to have the memorial at the end of October.

Rather than a boozy wake, it was afternoon tea at the church hall, but the place was packed, and fully vaccinated! We actually met the nice young couple who bought her house there, as they’d been told many stories by passerby’s as they moved in, and decided to pop by with their 3yr old son, and then stayed till the end!

I watched with some amusement as my husband poured over a sketched floor plan deep in discussion about the history of the several extensions, and additions to the property over the 40 or so years his parents had lived there, and was told their refurbishment plans in return. It was the perfect ending to an era you could say, as one household’s history ends, another was just beginning.

Now it’s November 2021, and I’ve started this blog to announce to myself, and the whole world wide web, that I’m ready to start working on The Sea Witch Project once more.

I’m still having some trouble with writing the fight scenes, but my mom Jammy Dodger has said that she will be my beta reader to troubleshoot those scenes for me. So I’m going back to all the audiobook podcast episodes that I’d recorded, and hopefully improving them with background soundscapes, and a music intro and outro. In fact, I’m planning on completely redoing all the YouTube releases, with scrolling captions so you can read while you listen.

Wish me luck, and hopefully you will be hearing from me soon with an update!

– Cara Field aka Lady Flame