Continued support and fun aspects too of rebuilding lives after estrangement can't believe 4 years and we still here to offer help, friendship and support.

I typed a long post yesterday but when I hit 'post message' nothing happened.

Your post did make me laugh eddiecat; I think if one of my shepherds pies is ever sloppy, I'll tell Mr. S. I'm preparing us for when we go are too old to live alone and need to go into care. Let's face it with our ES on the one hand and our DS in Aus. on the other, what choice will we have.

So sorry your appointment wasn't a success Celeb, having waited for so long. Well done for getting behind the wheel again, that'll do you good but you must be careful not to over do things. So, from what you've said you will get the injections but will have to wait 6 months. Did he say if he thought they'd help when you eventually get them?

Welcome SparklyGrandmait will be nice to have some sparkle added to this thread. Learning Italian; impressive, when you become fluent in a few months, you'll have to give us some lessons.

Luckylegs you are NOT a wet blanket, we are all here for one another and you've made uplifting and supportive posts before, but like all of us, you have your down periods and that's what we're all here for.

rubyladyfor Valentines day and my love too. Sorry it's a day late. If I can't post this message, I've a feeling my laptop will be making contact with the window.

Not sure one of those lamps would help YogagirlI don't think the miserable weather is the problem for me, at least it never was before it just makes it more difficult to feel upbeat when it's so gloomy outside.

Thanks so much for the chocolates and flowers Celeb, sorry been a wet blanket, it's almost been too much trouble doing anything, feeling not well and depressed drags you down, pulling myself together with support of everyone on here helps so much and hopefully I can return the favours.

Thank U starlady was lovley message to read after busy day!???

Rubylady so sorry u had lonely day yesterday???
These days like valentines and Mother's Day are so commercial we are made to feel out of it if notmhaving wonderful time. Do hope u feeling better soon.

Yogagirl hope u ok and don't take offence about my comments ref your d partner I think is hard to accept but our daughters do have free will and aren't totally controlled if they wanted to make contact they could.
It best not to dwell on it.

rubynlady is right it's the quiet times when painful thoughts hit us
Xx

That was a X, not X Legs!

I don't know about others but I do try to keep busy, mind occupied and all that but I find thoughts come back in when I am quieter. It's bloody painful, especially in this situation of bad health. On a day of love I've had cuddles off my doggie and no one else has been in touch, not even DS, I don't know why. I'm sure I still have a chest infection, I feel terrible. I keep asking to be checked and they do say there is still some infection but they don't want to give me more antibiotics, I'm sick of fighting now for what I feel is right. Sorry, tired, I'll be ok after a sleep. X Legs swollen even after three water tablets today.

Happy Valentine's Day to you, too, celebgran! And to everybody here! Glad to hear you were feeling better today, cel. Sorry you overdid a little though. And sorry about that not-so-nice ref consultant.

SparklyGrandma, I think it's great that you are moving forward with your life, learning a new language and so on. Best of luck!

Thank you celebgran for posting me a link to this thread.

I think its good some are trying at Parliament and on the media trying to raise the issues of grandparents, access to grandchildren and estrangement. Its too late for me and in any case I cant deal with stress at that level but I really do wish any GP trying to get access, overcome estrangement or barriers due to divorce of DS or DD, the very best of luck and success in their actions.

I think coming on GN was the best thing so far for giving the strength and support to see estrangement as sort of normal, but the cruelty of it not, and that I can move on in life.

I bought an Italian verb book 4 days ago - I dont have a language gene in my whole body ladies, but after watching all that Montalbano, I am interested in perhaps understanding what they are saying.

This old girl is going to try and learn a new trick or two!

Greetings and strength to us all.

Happy Valentine's Day all❤️❤️

So pleased for first time since been ill drove dh to work and had car drove 10 miles to acquacise local pool still clsoed, was great and did bit shopping, got dh Valentines pressy.

Back v painful now may overdone it?

Bad news ref consultant appt it was so stressful hour long wait and henwas v wound up over colchester hospital problems bottom line six month wait for injections
I was totally gutted. I have slipped disc and wear and tesr he was t very positive not nice man,

Hope everyone enjoys today luckylegs this is for u flowers ? and chocolates ? Hope u feeling brighter

Ever so sorry your but your daughter is with her husband and you have to accept that and hope your can reconnect with them both.

We cared for our s i law and feel v naieve not to have realised that he was plotting to b rid of us and was him who went to police.

However our daughter loves him it is her choice and we have to accept or oh that.

I realise he is adamant we won't see them but pray one day he realises how cruel and unfair he has been

Yogarl sun makes us feel better!
So sorry u are alone at night when u feel sad, i too have my night horrors as u know but I do have Gra.

He is getting rough deal this morning v nervous about mynappt with spinal consultant ??he can help.

Morning Girls, The sun is out and shinning
My fiend has one of those lamps that eases 'S.A.D' symptoms.

Me too I'm afraid, regarding the sad thoughts, after 4plus years you would think it would ease up, but it doesn't I still have to get up in the night to stop the sad thoughts, I'm a lot better after I've had a cuppa in the mornings and had a 'chat' on here
Thing is, it's over, no matter what happens now, the clock cannot be turned back, we can never go back and just pick-up where we left off, the special bond I had with my darling little GD gone forever, it can never be back to how it was or should be now without the estrangement. If we reunited now it would be a different relationship, building from being a stranger from my GC point of view There will be no reuniting with my D whilst she is with her nasty H & his mother [they come as a pair] and we wouldn't want to reconnect with Mrs G. [as she is, married to him] we want to reconnect with my D, my ND's sister that we loved so!

Celebran - thankyou for your kind thoughts. We do have a good relationship with son - but see him rarely as he lives 300 miles away. DIL announced 6 years ago that she thought we`d never liked her and so she wasn`t going to see us again - in fact we liked her very much when they got together.Since then we have seen her and the children about once a year but it is always a nightmare to arrange - she won`t let us see the children without her. When it all blew up we thought we were going to lose son too as she wanted him to choose us or her - but in fact her behaviour has become so unreasonable that it has now destroyed all the love he had for her. He wants to leave but can`t afford to - and he knows she would make it difficult for him to have access to the children.

Hope everyone here is feeling more cheerful today. xx

Just realised it's sons partner i believe who Causing problems?

so sorry try not to let it spoil too much for your daughtes happy occasion.

Eddiecat remind me please, is it just son Who you estranged from?

So sorry if this will cast cloud over wedding it would be wonderful if it caused a reunion here's hoping ???

Sorry to everyone who is feeling low - the weather really doesn`t help. We are having a difficult day - daughter getting married soon - we heard today that son is coming but he cannot get his wife to come or persuade her to let him bring the children on his own. To be honest we don`t want her there as she has caused so much heartache but we would have made her welcome. It should be a happy family day but............

Sorry to hear, Stella and Smileless, that the winter weather is making you feel worse. Hope you both feel better soon.

Smileless, it sounds as if you have great new neighbors and that you and Mr S are happy in your new home. It shows that it really was a good idea to move.

I've been feeling exactly the same Stella. You've summed up just how I've been feeling all week. I feel sad, not depressed or weepy just sad and also emotionally tired so what you've said makes perfect sense.

As time's gone on I've become increasingly positive as we make plans for what we'll do each coming year and what we'll do when Mr. S. retires in 2 or 3 years' time.

We've been in our new home 3 months now and love it here so much. TBH I was rather worried that I've had such a protracted period of sadness and tiredness, not going to the gym, just wanting to stay in; I think the miserable weather is partly responsible.

Then I told myself to keep it in perspective. Of course we're going to have periods of sadness; all we can do is make the best of it and wait for it to pass.

We had our lovely neighbours round for a meal last night, it was great fun and they didn't leave until 1.30am. Now we've got to know them better we told them some of what's been going on. Theon their faces said it all really. They said how very sorry they were for our plight, that they were glad we're so happy here and they're glad we've become their neighbours and friends.

Wasn't that a lovely thing to say.

Hi guys, Glad to see the new thread. I've been very positive in recent years, but over the past few days, a sadness has come over me and I feel 'emotionally very tired' about it all (I hope that makes sense). It's probably just the grey, wet, cold weather. I am not a winter person, so there is too much time sitting around indoors.

Afternoon ladies. Hope you've all got something nice planned for the weekend.

We've got our lovely new neighbours coming round for a meal; home made lasagne followed by sherry trifle. I've had to make 2 trifles as one of the girls doesn't like custard so the last time they came she had to go without.

Well last night was a strange end to a strange week. I just couldn't get to sleep; the last time I looked at the clock it was 2.40am. No idea why, nothing apart from the usual on my mind and that was no worse than normal.

Made up for it this morning though as I didn't get up until 9.45am. Mr. S. bought our little dog upstairs for his morning cuddle before he left for work and bless him he didn't move for 2.5 hours, just snuggled up to me making little noises of contentment (the dog, not Mr. S.).

Glad you had a good day yesterday Celeb. I've wondered before if there's an element of jealousy as us regulars have known each other for quite sometime and our friendships are obvious. That said, how could any mother and GM not estranged from their AC and GC be jealous of those of us that are. As with life in general, it really doesn't make any sense does it.

Yes eddiecat absolutely and I've said so before on more than one occasion. God forbid that those of us who are estranged have been abandoned through no fault of out our own. If it can happen to us, it could happen to them too.

Regarding all the agro - I`ve got a new theory! I wonder if people refuse to accept that estrangement can be unprovoked because - if they do accept it - they have to face the frightening fact that it could happen to them .

Well I have had such lovley day out my B friend took me out for lunch and managed spot retail got some nice things for dh birthday,

It is awful to read the deliberate nasty unpleasant posts on the other 2 threads
I really admire u smilelss for supporting us but the poster on there seems to just thrive on twisting everything into something horrid inreally think she must have mental issues, why would anyone do that?

I prefer not to respond it really does t help.
We have such close bond trying to support each other and we just don't. Need it.

Almost like some posters are jealous of our continuing friendship and success ?

Smilelss I do hope so, but he is still with the partner who throws him out regularly mmmm had chat with him this afternoon of course he was in our area while we were out but had phone catch up I almost plead with him to get a place of his own,
Fingers crossed if not his partner will spend all his dosh on Cruises she has one booked already!

Hope things improve for your twin Celeb and that he gets a place of his own and can begin rebuilding his life.

Well eddiecat I took a look at the thread on AIBU and notanan did make me laugh; accusing others of lacking in empathy and being judgemental. Talk about the pot calling the kettle.

Perhaps knowing that some people have such warped opinions on this subject goes some way to explaining how these estrangements come about in the first place.

Agree with you Celeb - let`s keep to this thread and hope the trolls stay away. My elderly brain can`t cope with looking at 3 threads at once - life`s too short!
Hope everyone has a good day. I`m off to hairdressers - have to wear full makeup when I go as it is the only way I can stand looking in the mirror for so long!