The Legacy Blog

I'm back - it's been a long time and - 'a lot of  blood plasma has flowed under the epidermis'.

And a lot has happened, in a black and white, art-house-movie-with-subtitles, kind of a way. I'm not sure I can muster the enthusiasm for a summary of events. Perhaps the best option is to allow anything pertinent to this Ingmar Bergman script - to simply emerge unbidden, organically....

However, I will begin by returning to an old theme; coming to terms with stark reality........

It is evident that having made what might be described as a threefold and not inconsiderable contribution to the nation's gene pool, 'Management' has made it abundantly clear that my services are no longer needed. The message, delivered in a series of devastating blows; kidney cancer that had metastasised to the lungs, a degenerative spinal condition and most recently, Parkinson's Disease, might be regarded as just a tad, overdone, overly-emphatic.

Perhaps this kind of triple whammy is reserved for those dim-witted persons, such as myself, who insist on harbouring the delusion that the cut-off point on the gene-pool issue might have been premature? Now, I'm not saying that there are current grounds for this assertion - only that, 'you never know how things might work out'.

What I can say, however, is that, after more than three years in circulation, the message is definitely getting through.

You can understand, I'm sure, my reluctance to accept Nature.com's summary judgement after less than one year inhabiting the sunny uplands of retirement. I did consider taking the case to an 'existential tribunal' on the grounds of 'destructive dismissal' but was told by my legal team that I had little chance of winning - no-one had - not even Ms Anne Frank - in several hundred thousand years.

So, I saved my money and am spending it on my genetic output - which, incidentally, continues to grow. The latest arrival is Millie Ayala (pronounced, 'Aye-yella') Lichtenstein, the third child of my daughter, Claire. Millie is named for my great-aunt, a lovely 'old lady' from my earlier life - and someone who was granted a lengthy 'post-gene pool' extension.

Not that I'm bitter about the inexorable rise of  average life expectancy - someone has to fall on the up-slope of the bell curve.

Well, on reflection, perhaps I am just a little bitter...........

The subject of bitterness brings me to today. I am recently returned from the radiotherapy department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Cancer Centre (QEHCC). I had a CT scan in order to furnish the treatment phase with the mapping of the leftside of my pelvis which will enable the five-session zapping of a newly-located tumour/lesion. I will admit that it was a little disconcerting to find, when lying prone on the scan-table, three attractive young women spending some time in first helping me to lower my trousers and underwear before then examining my upper groin at close-quarter scrutiny.

Like I said earlier, you can never tell how things might work out.

P.S. Time for apologies. I am big on apologies.

I apologise for the nearly-eleven month blog-silence, particularly for those who have told me that they have missed it and for those family and friends I don't see/email/text or Facebook regularly; you are the people who have missed the unfolding personal and medical saga over the last year - but for this at least, you may be grateful?

I apologise too for the fact that I cannot be confident of the timing of my next blog. Today I found some energy. Now it is spent and I can't be sure when I will find it again....

P.S.S. (now the following day) I thought of some good, no, great news.

Most of you now know that, in April, I self-published my long-incubated novel for teenagers (aged 13-99 years), entitled, If These Walls Could Whisper. The publishing house from whom I acquired an ISBN number told me that I had to send a copy to the British Library; something I was more than happy to do.

The other day I had a follow-up email informing me that I now needed to send five further copies for distribution to - wait for it - the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Cambridge University Library, National Library of Wales, National Library of Scotland and Trinity College, Dublin.

Wow! My legacy may be more than just a few sequences of DNA......

xx