Friends,

My post seems to have caused a bit of controversy. To those of you who saw the funny side and took this as it was intended, thank you for restoring my faith in the human spirit during periods of adversity.

To others who found it in bad taste I offer an apology and sympathy but let’s put some perspective here.

 

A recent post in one group featured a picture of man (if I am permitted to assume that) surrounded by empty beer bottles. No one thought this was distasteful to alcoholics. No comment about said person smoking which in the face of a respiratory virus, killing people faster than smoking-induced lung cancer, should surely be even more offensive. The empty bottles were strewn about haphazardly, a nightmare to sufferers of OCD.

 

To add, my brother is an advanced paramedic, who is otherwise fit and healthy, has just gone down with a bad cough, sore throat and shortness of breath. No PPE and no testing kit/equipment. That’s offensive but beyond my ability to do anything to change that situation. Paramedics are often the first to jump to black humour. Its one of their coping mechanisms.

 

My wife has Crohn’s Disease and has had two large sections of bowel removed, the result of which is she lives with permanent diarrhoea, and has done for about fifty years. Medication I take for diabetes often builds up and puts me into a similar state. You would think then that we would we offended by all the toilet roll jokes but we see the funny side and just deal with it because be don’t let trivialities get us down.

 

So you understand a bit more about me, I suffered a massive stroke about twelve years ago which has left my mobility impaired, along with other problems not immediately apparent. Some of those problems are mental in that my short term memory is terrible, and I suffer from a form of emotion lability where I don’t often look ahead to think about the effects of what I am saying. You cannot see this via the internet so please don’t just assume that someone means to be offensive just because you find something offensive. Just ignore it.

 

I hope we can still remain friends.

 

TomG6PZZ