I don't usually post really personal stuff on here but some of you know I have recently been in hospital. I was admitted to a neurological ward. Hospitals are grim at the best of times. In the bed next to me was a rather beautiful child/young woman who a is now 19, a year ago she was set to take 5 A levels or whatever they are called now and was hoping to get into Cambridge. She suffered if that id the right word,encephalitis which was mis diagnosed and now suffers from extreme epilepsy and has huge memory loss. She is still bright and beautiful but she knows what she has lost and may never return despite that she could laugh chat and share a take away curry. In one of the beds opposite me was another bright and beautiful young girl same age. She was at uni here with her boyfriend felt ill one weekend and made an appointment to go and see her doctor at the same surgery that I go to. Her boyfriend phoned to remind her of the appointment getting no reply returned back to their digs to find that she had suffered a brain hemorrhage. It was thought that she would not survive but she did and a year on most of the time she is in a vegetative state, when her boyfriend rocked up she became somewhat alert, was able to follow simple commands, open your mouth we need to clean your teeth, blink if you are saying yrs, and one one evening several friends, despite strict hospital rules stating only two visitors per bed from uni rocked up, she was able to smile, sort of throw a soft ball and interact with her eyes. I have children their age and there but for the grace of something they are healthy and sometimes I feel sorry for myself but I have reached mid life have had so many experiences some good some bad but all part of life's rich taperstry, I am thankful for that and for those two girls well, my heart goes out to them and their families.