A celebration of Barbara Hodgkinon's life will be held on July 9th, 2.30 p.m. - Alrewas, Staffordshire.

Barbara Joy Hodgkinson, died peacefully on May 6th 2011 after illness.

Adored wife of Christopher Dalton and loving mother to Jack and Harry Dalton. She was 50 years old and worked as a teacher at the British School of Brussels. She will be deeply missed by friends and family.

A celebration of Barbara’s life will be held on July 9th, 2.30 p.m. at the Methodist Hall, Post Office Road, Alrewas, Burton-On-Trent, Staffordshire.
Swanky bags, great shoes, bright clothes. No mourning attire.

This will be followed by a get-together at 121, Main Street, Alrewas, Staffordshire, DE13 7ED

Donations to Shelter, the housing and homeless charity.

For any queries you can call Chris Dalton on + 32 470 394 975 (Belgium number)
Any queries related to Alrewas you can contact Jane Gravells on 07957 888109 (UK Number).

Barbara died peacefully on May 6th 2011

Barbara died peacefully on May 6th 2011 after illness.

A celebration of Barbara’s life is being arranged hopefully for May 14th at 2.00 p.m. at Vilvoorde Crematorium. Swanky bags, great shoes, bright clothes are required.

A further celebration will be held in the UK at a later date.

The family would like to thank many friends for their wonderful help and support over recent times.

Barbs is very poorly in hospital

Barbs is very poorly in hospital. She's comfortable and pain free. Still smiling and eating crisps plus cups of tea with choccy buscuits.

Barbara Update

Three lovely weeks at home then back into hospital last monday and with a large epileptic fit (bummer). After some days in intensive care -now back on the normal ward. Starting radio/chemo treatment next week on a regrowing tumour - time will tell how we progress...Still smiling....

Finally Home !

Got home on Monday Afternoon with a bag of pills.

Have a new bedroom downstairs, all pale blue and white with lovely yellow flowers.

Getting used to a new routine and just glad to be home - with family and friends.

Have a nurse visiting every morning and physio every day. Still need speech therapy.

Looking forward to some warm weather for trips in the park. Enjoying proper food and some comedy on TV - and life in general.

Love to all.
Barbara xxx.

Still in ...but improving to come home

Since the 'clean up' op on 4th January...Barbara has to be on 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotics to get completely rid of this bug. So she stays in hospital.

This is bad because
- hospital is not home
- the food is so boring

This is good because
- it's easy to continue the physio (Barb's doing well - 1km on the static bike!)
- it's easy to continue the speech therapy (Barbara has "receptive aphasia" and finds this hard work)
- they can keep an eye on her and look after her.

Spirits and sense of humour are being maintained despite the monotony and inevitable homesickness.

Thanks to everyone for their help and their wishes.

New Operation - OK

After the weeks of trying to resolve the infection, Barbs had another operation yesterday.

In the same place as the last one - they went back in to clean out the suspected infection. This went to plan.

I spoke to her last night and she was talking and moving OK.

Now lacking the bit of skull bone over the hole - which they will patch up later. So needs to be a bit careful for a while.

Hopefully this is the start of her moving back up.

Barbara Update 14 December

Barbara came out of intensive care on the 9th...and then had a day in isolation. She picked up a meningitis infection which has now been managed with antibiotics.

She's now on the normal ward

Technically things are OK – the operation did what it was supposed to do. Although she is as "weak as a puppy" after being stuck in bed for 2 weeks and having an operation and infection and some bouts of persistent epilepsy. She started walking a few steps yesterday.

Mentally - she is building up from a very low point (which was 9th December) …and we just have to wait how much of her facilities she recovers and when. At the moment she can have some conversation but finds it hard to talk and explain herself. Her vision is a bit confused but she can watch TV and see pictures.

You can imagine she has gone through an emotional roller coaster. All the things about being dangerously ill and unable to communicate properly. She has periods when she is happy and periods when she is a bit angry and scared. Very good periods and some awful periods.

I think the good periods are starting to win and she is improving a bit every day.

Jack and Harry had a nice visit on Monday and she may be up to a few visitors starting later this week.

I hope to get her home for a few hours at Christmas and then properly in the new year.

The Op is done.

Barbara had her operation done today around 2pm. Doctors said it went fine.

I visited her in recovery around 8pm and she was OK – obviously tired and full of tubes – but could talk OK. Had a few nice words together and held her hand for a bit.

Will keep you updated as she progresses back to the normal ward in the coming days.

Chris

Stuck in hospital until my operation on 2nd December.

Trying to be a patient patient.