1973
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In May we had another, 10%, trip on the Lindblad Explorer . This still cost £200 each, plus flights, and we could not really afford it: but I was 3-4 months pregnant, and we felt there would be no more such fantastic holidays for the foreseeable future!
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| Staying with Bob and Carole in the summer of 1973 ; they had just adopted Becky |
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I stopped working for BOAC at the end of August, David leaving Johnson Wax at about the same time, having been headhunted by Phillip Morris Europe. Then we had 7 weeks waiting for a greencard for David's work in Lausanne: finally we gave them an ultimatum that if we did not fly out there by October 19th, then we would not go until after the baby arrived. We flew on the 19th: the green card finally came through about 2 months later!!
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Stephen was born on 11/11/1973 in Clinic Charmettes. We were still living in La Residencia hotel, and we used a drawer as his bed for the first 5 weeks there . We had a jazzy company car to ferry around our new addition. David started skiing each weekend, so I took up Staffan's offer to rent a chalet in Vebier and learn to ski myself when Stephen was just 5 weeks old - since we were still living in one hotel room, waiting for the company flat to become free on 18/12/1973.
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I then broke my leg on 18/12/1973, on the last day in Verbier, just before returning to Lausanne to take possession of the long awaited flat! My mother had already flown out to meet her new grandchild by then, soon to be joined by my father. Christmas was triply fraught for David: worrying about me in hospital, looking after Stephen and trying to entertain my parents, my mother blaming him for my condition!! I was in hospital for 6 weeks, Stephen joining me after a couple of weeks . David and his secretary, Beatrice, looked after him in the interim. I had to wait for the swelling to subside before they could operate on the knee: to achieve this the leg was on traction for 10 days. Immediately after the operation I was accused of being delirious: they had done ( without informing me) a bone graft from my hip, and it was that that hurt rather than the knee! I was soon moved to a different room so that Stephen crying would not disturb other residents! When Dr Juillard visited to 'get the knee moving' I had to ask them to take Stephen outside - as I shrieked so much. I was discharged at the end of January, equipped with crutches & with orders not to put the right foot on the ground for a month or so
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| Gillian, Nicola, ~1966 . . . . . . . And with Joanna & Joyce Soper ~1973 . . ...& 1975 at Stoke Bruerne with Chris & Mum | |||
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Testing some equipment for Richard in his house at 17 Martingales Crescent, Ham |
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