Tomorrow a big day for

A friend of mine - poor lad - he has Appendix Cancer and they will be operating on him all day long - they say it is a 13 hour operation. It's just so sad that he has this - he isn't that old, I remember him being born and he has Cerebral Palsy - but gets on just fine and we meet up maybe 8 times a year for the Jazz night. He is probably only in his early 30s and is the nicest young man you could meet, very pleasant and he is a joy to know. I can only imagine what his family are going through now. He lost his dad whne he was very young - he died of Cancer and very quickly as I recall - diagnosed one day and dead within a few weeks - it was that sudden - a shock to everyone prompting them to move away and so we saw less of them than usual.

It was only a few years ago that we made the connection between out family and theirs and he is, indeed a far distant cousin by marriage - you ned to go back 3 generations and across 2 to get to them :-) We thought that was most amusing and he and I enjoy each others company and have a laugh and exchange pleasantries.

I can hardly imagine whet it is going to be like for him and his mum and sister tomorrow. Let's pray for a favourable outcome - I imagine he will be poorly for some time after this and I really wish that they come through for him.

I tend to be very much thinking about myself at the moment - I think it is all reflection - I'd like to think it isn't being selfish. This poor chap has a mountain to climb this next few months and I just hope and pray that he does that - it hardly seems fair to me that he already had a set of bad cards dealt to him and despite all of that he has triumphed through and got himself through school, got a job he has held for a long time and gets himself about etc. He's good company and a thoroughly delightful young man - but for some reason that I have yet to fathom or work out, that doesn't matter in this world we live in. You'd have thought the good and the innocent and the caring would get a few breaks in life or at least deserve them but making sense of this life sometimes is extremely difficult.

My prayers tonight are with him and his family and the surgeons who have to call on the full skill and abilities to help cure him.