Two posts in one day! (And it’s been way more than a week I’ve been trying to find the time to get this together!)

It’s been suggested, since our wedding anniversary, that we post some wedding photos. Ordinarily I would feel a bit weird about sticking them on the internet, but it got me thinking that there are a lot of people who read this blog who’ve only met us since the onset of Neil’s diagnosis.

I don’t feel any of the photos we’ve just re-vamped the website with show off my handsome husband! So I’ve put together some photos which I think best capture Neil during my time with him. They’re sort of in chronological order.

I’ve tried not to embarrass him… apart from the one in the swimming pool… personally, the beard was always fine by me, but I realise this may come as a shock to some of you… and yes, we know about the Chuck Norris similarity. 

In fact, Neil claims to have had many professions before becoming an architect. Firstly, I believe he was a cowboy, then a brief spell as a spaceman before becoming a wizard, so you can understand he’s very proud of getting out of the rut that was architect and graduating into a martial arts legend… at least for the winter while he needed the facial fluff for warmth.

I’ve also realised from going through all our photos that there’s hardly any of the two of us, so if anyone has any, would you share them with me!

The other memory that seems to be poorly represented is Neil on his motorbike. He used to commute to work on his 900cc Triumph Tridant Sprint. I always meant to get a picture of him dressed up in his gear. Then, around February, after diagnosis, someone stole the bike. It wasn’t just something that could be replaced by an insurance claim. Every evening Oscar and I used to watch for the gate opening and Neil driving his bike in the drive. Ironically, my heart was in my mouth every day till I knew he was home safe and off that bike! I loved watching the look of recognition on Oscar’s face when his daddy took off his crash helmet.

When the police came to the door to tell us the bike had miraculously been recovered in one piece, I made Neil go and have his photo taken on it, which is this one here. He had to take a taxi, he already couldn’t drive. If you know what you’re looking for, his ‘Foot-Up’ is visible in his shoelaces. It’s not the picture I have in my head and that I wanted for Oscar.  If anyone does happen to have a better photo please, please pass it on.

I know there’s a wheelchair in the last two photos, but he’s still the same person, and I like the photos so pre or post diagnosis, it’s all the same to me, and I’m just as proud of him, if not even more so. x

I had been trying to put a post on the Plattitude with earlier pictures of Neil since the first newspaper article in the Yorkshire Post. I had been feeling that the image of a man wearing a ventilator mask would be accepted as Neil and if I didn’t show some pictures of him when he was happy and healthy, then the real impact of the disease wouldn’t be felt.

The final picture of Neil smiling in the wheelchair with a beer in his hand was taken at his birthday in mid July. The Yorkshire Post article was published on December 3rd, less than four months later. – Louise (2013)