I wanna tell you a story.

[Thos]

Our eldest son and his wife have developed a (very good) habit of taking my wife and I away to France for a couple of days of good food and drink as a Christmas present. We usually go in May and this year they booked a hotel in Reims. We were to leave earlyish on Thursday last and during the previous afternoon we had a call to say that my daughter-in-law's sister, Kath, who was on holiday in St. Quentin, had been taken ill. She had fallen, been taken to hospital and had been diagnosed as having a brain aneurism.

As there weren't the neurological facilities there she had been transferred by helicopter to Amiens and was at that minute being operated upon. Of course, on Thursday, instead of going to Reims, we went to Amiens, where Eileen, our D-in-L, was able to see Kath after her 5 hour operation which turned out to be a double aneurism. She was in intensive care, very sleepy but knew Eileen and was pleased to see her. John, her husband was with her and the hospital had provided accommodation for him. Their 22 year old daughter had just arrived also and the hospital fixed up a reasonable hotel for her nearby.

After Eileen had satisfied herself that Kath was doing well we went on to Reims and had a good day on Friday. On Saturday we drove back up to Amiens and Kath had been moved out of intensive care into a room where John was also allowed to stay. She was much brighter and lucid and they are expecting to discharge her towards the end of next week.

The main purpose of writing all this is, I suppose to record the excellent medical services of France if ever any of you fall ill over there and also to remark on the coincidence of all of this happening just as we were going over anyway and thus able to satisfy ourselves and Kath's mother & father (who couldn't travel) that she was in good hands.

Thos.

[-pops-]

From my times of working in France, I can confirm that French medical care is superb.

[andsome]

Hope everything carries on going well. :D