GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB COLOURS...

...well, the outside and inside frame are - gold and black!  These are the colours that the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club wear when they play One Day matches and also T20 - and the reason I have chosen these for the frame of this blanket is that we have just visited Keith, Mr. HCB’s cricket buddy again.

We did wonder if he would have be moved from the hospice, but we have noticed a marked difference after our visit last week, so hopefully, he can stay there now until his passing.  This blanket is on his bed and many of these have been knitted over the last few years by various volunteers for those patients on the “end of life” pathway at the local hospice, so that the rooms wouldn’t look so clinical - such a lovely idea and it works.

When we arrived Keith was sleeping but woke after about 10 minutes, chatted to us for a little while and then dozed off again, only to wake a few minutes later to ask Mr. HCB if there were any decent football matches being played at the moment.  Mr. HCB updated him on what was happening this coming weekend and he then lapsed into sleep again.

On one of the occasions that Keith was awake, Mr. HCB told him that he was going to take me to the cricket ground at Bristol to see all the wonderful paintings.  He then reminded Keith of all the walking he used to do and how he would be gone for almost three hours, wandering all around the cricket ground and chatting to people he knew.  Mr. HCB also told Keith that he always knew where he was because he looked for his blue baseball cap, which made Keith smile - I have put in an extra shot of Keith and Mr. HCB enjoying a pasty from the shop just down the road from the cricket ground and you will see that Keith is wearing his blue baseball cap!

We also had a chat about house numbers, Keith having told us that his son, Graham, had been chatting to the couple who lived at Number 3 - so I asked Keith what number he was, and he remembered he was Number 7 in their road.  That led to a discussion about odd and even numbering in streets and roads, so as we didn’t know much about it, I asked Mr. Google.  By this time, Keith was asleep again, so that information will have to wait!  

It was lovely to be able to sit with Keith and for him to know we were there.  Before we left, I prayed with him and our visit ended with Keith gripping both our hands and he then told us how much he appreciated our friendship - so we told him we felt the same.  I told Keith that I was so grateful that although I hadn’t been party to all the conversations that he and Mr. HCB had had over the years I knew that they had made many wonderful memories together and those were what would keep us all going.  We also had a conversation about how his wife, Vi, who died in 2016, had always sent him off with enough food to feed everyone in the ground!  Keith said he thought she had worked on the biblical principle of “feeding the five thousand” and then he carried on doing the same even after she had died.  

What a wonderful visit with a lovely man, who says he is ready to go to be with the God he loves so much and to see his beloved wife, Vi.  Mr. HCB and I feel privileged to have been with Keith this afternoon.  

“The best moment 
     of a Christian’s life 
          is his last one, 
               because it is the one 
                    that is nearest heaven.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1834-1892
English Particular Baptist preacher