^th January 2017

Rune’s final day at home before he left for St. Josephs, proved to be more challenging than I could ever have imagined. What’s more, it wasn’t even due to him! No, not Rune, but the finance department of the social services.

The Eleventh Hour!

All was going well on Friday. Rune seemed very happy playing games in his room and waiting for my parents to visit. We’d talked through the routine of the day and he was aware that following nanny and grandad leaving, we’d be doing a spot of packing. Not his consoles and dvds. That could wait until tomorrow morning. No, just his clothes. So, all was ticking along nicely, Rune was coping well and then at 12.30pm, I received a phone call which was to rock my afternoon.

St. Josephs informed me that unless they received confirmation of funding for Rune’s residential place at the college, he wasn’t going to be able to move in the next day!!!!!!

Okay, so the funding for Rune’s package of care was agreed on back in July last year. During the summer holidays, Rune’s social worker had notified St. Josephs that everything could go ahead as the funding was in place and so they immediately started work on recruiting the two staff needed for Rune to be able to move in.

Basically, in a nutshell, St. Joseph’s regularly requested the letter of confirmation from the Local Authority, and they got repeatedly ignored. This went on for over five months! Well, right up until (and beyond) the day before moving in day! I pretty much freaked out, to be honest, and phoned Rune’s social worker to find out what on earth was going on! She told me that neither she nor her manager could understand the holdup and advised me to get in touch with her managers, managers, managers, manager! Apparently, this top manager was the one who was supposed to be liaising with the finance department to get everything done and dusted. I phoned. She wasn’t in her office and no one knew how to get hold of her. What’s more, the minutes were fast ticking by.

The Aboriginal Way

 About a month or so earlier, a lovely friend of mine and my spiritual happiness councillor, told me about how the aboriginals sang their dreams into creation. I found this to be a wonderful way to help me calm when I felt panicked or sad about Rune leaving. I would sing about him being happy, making friends, enjoying himself and settling into his room. It’s a very beautiful thing to do and I can highly recommend it. It makes feel in touch with source energy and I know from somewhere deep inside me that I’m being listened to.

So, following my initial freak out, I decided to make like an aboriginal and sing our creation into being. And wow, it made me feel so much calmer. I still felt slightly sick at the thought of Rune being let down and the fall out of him not leaving, but at least I’d stopped having heart palpitations.

My parents arrived around 2 pm and I told them the news which worried my dad. Despite that, however, he was supportive and kept reassuring me that all would be well. Rune came downstairs and had a chat and a cuddle and relentlessly asked for a new game for his PS Vita, and dad and Tammy being who they are, gave him £10.

For me, though, really, I couldn’t relax. Inside I felt so bloody cross with the whole situation. The various people I spoke to at the social services offices that afternoon suddenly turned into grovelling brown nosers when I stated that on Monday morning, the complaints department would open up the office to find a strong email from me.

Good News

Around 4 pm, the cut off time, I received a call from St. Joes informing me that despite the fact the funding confirmation email still hadn’t been received from the local authority, they couldn’t bear to let Rune down and undo the transition work I had been helping him through since I broke the news to him of his move, on Boxing day. My parents and I were very relieved although the issue wasn’t fully resolved; St Josephs had sent an email to the LA that afternoon stating that although they would take Rune the next day as previously arranged, regrettably, if they still hadn’t received confirmation of the funding by Friday 13^th January, Rune’s placement at the college would be terminated.

Letting Go

 It wasn’t the time to fret about the following week. I would get back on the case on Monday. For now, at least, Rune and I could continue our plans for the big day.

We ended up going out for a meal that evening to Wagamama, one of our favourite restaurants. We actually just went out only to get some P.J’s and underwear for Rune but then the idea came to me that I just wanted to sit with him, talk with him and spend one to one time with him. I knew that if we went home Rune would just go up to his room again. India had a bit of a cold ( again. More on those issues in another post) so she had stayed at home. I got in touch with her and told her of our plans and would she feel left out. India being India, of course, was very happy for Rune and me to spend time together.

Huge changes are about to happen in Rune’s life and all I want to do right now is hold him close and give him all my love. This will be our last night together in the same house for quite some while.