Four weeks after my daughter's stroke, when she could still not walk, talk or eat, her tickets for the first Saturday on Number 1 Court at Wimbledon arrived. Elizabeth is tennis mad, and every year, she and her friend, Lesley enter the open ballot for Wimbledon tickets. If they don't get tickets, they go up for the first day of the championship and pay the ground entry fee, because on the first day, you're guaranteed to see decent players on the outside courts.
When we told her the tickets had arrived, we said we'd have to send them back. She couldn't talk, but the vigorous head shake conveyed her feelings. Not wanting to discourage her by making it clear that she had a snowball's chance in hell of taking up those prized tickets, we just let her carry on thinking she'd be going to Wimbledon. After all, she needed something to aim for.
Long story short, on Saturday, Elizabeth took her seat on Number 1 Court. Okay, strictly speaking, it wasn't the ticket that arrived through the post. Her friend Lesley contacted the Wimbledon box office and explained the situation when Elizabeth was discharged from hospital several weeks earlier than expected, and the trip to Wimbledon looked to be on the cards. The staff were marvellous, and agreed to exchange the tickets for seats in the wheelchair access area. Not only were the girls stationed courtside, they only had to pay for one seat instead of two, as wheelchair users don't pay.
It took a military operation to get Elizabeth to Wimbledon - Lesley's daughter, who is a nurse, took the day off to drive them, so there'd be someone with medical knowledge on hand, and she also arranged for the loan of a wheelchair. Still, she did it, and the boost from her day on court has done more to aid her recovery than all the medications and physio in the world. She's worn out, but happy, and feeling that life can and will get back to normal after her stroke. As for me, I think it's a miracle that she's even out of hospital, let alone at Wimbledon. After all, three weeks ago, she couldn't walk, talk or eat.
