Susan had been very busy at home. The day after she came back from Surrey she cleaned out the guest bedroom. Over the years she had used it as a storage area instead of a guest room. Luckily some of the teenage boys whose families worked on her farm were eager to lend a hand in exchange for some extra pocket money. So they did all the heavy lifting and moving, whilst Susan cleaned the place up and provided them all with drinks and lunch.

In the afternoon she had gone out into town to buy some of those sheets that had cartoons on them, because Harry had so obviously enjoyed them at the B&B. Then she made a visit to the local toyshop and bought a few new toys. There should be more toys up in the attic at home, but she could always have Harry help look for them. They could treat it as a treasure hunt or something of the like.

Susan also had a look through her photo albums, as there were quite a few pictures of a young Lily in there, and the few pictures of Lily and James together. Harry would love those as well, she was sure. Eventually she had sat down to rest, as Harry wouldn’t even arrive for another few weeks, but at least the hard work was done for the moment. If she thought of anything else she had plenty of time to get things ready. Tomorrow she would focus on the running of the farm. Most of the lambing season was now over, so she could focus on which fields the sheep would graze for the next little while as the weather got warmer this close to the summer.

The next day Susan had sat down with the families that she hired to help run the farm. The Holmes’ family did all the fencing and repairing the walls, whilst the Thomas’ family mainly looked after the sheep themselves. The Shaw family was a very small family who were a little older by now, and they kept up the buildings on the farm and lend a hand when it was needed, especially during the lambing season and the roundup in autumn. They all helped her keep track of the health of her sheep and made it easy to keep the farm. Susan was afraid that otherwise, she would’ve had to leave the farm some time ago and live in a retirement home, which she was not planning on ever doing! During the meeting she also told them of the planned visit from little Harry and they were all delighted for her. Only the Shaw family actually knew Lily and James, but the others had heard so much about them over the years that they too felt they knew them.

Unfortunately Susan’s happiness was not to last. That evening, as she prepared to go to bed and was just putting everything away in the kitchen she felt a sharp pain in her head. Then she saw the ground rushing up to meet her before everything went black.

A few days later

“I think she’s waking up Emma. At least, that’s what it looks like.”

Susan was wondering where that voice was coming from, and why in the world someone was talking next to her bed. As she tried to open her eyes, she realized that she could not move properly. Distressed she wanted to say something, but that too proved to be difficult.

“Susan? Please stay calm alright? You’re in hospital and have been here for a few days already. Just take your time waking up and let the doctor have a look at you.”

She was quite sure it was Peter who was talking to her, but why would she be in hospital? Hadn’t she just been going to bed at the farm? Finally she managed to open her eyes, and she looked around the room blearily. It definitely looked like a hospital room, and not like her own bedroom a t the farm.

A man came up from the right and started talking to her. Susan decided it was probably best to actually pay attention.

“Hello Mrs. Evans. I am Doctor Rice and I will perform a very quick check-up with you whilst you are awake. “

She tried to tell him he should just call her Susan, as hardly anyone ever called her Mrs. Evans anymore, but found the words didn’t come out of her mouth.

“Mrs. Evans you have had a stroke, which has left your left side paralyzed. This means speech is also very difficult for you. Do not worry too much however; as we will begin your therapy very soon and this will increase your chances of recovery.”

Whilst Doctor Rice was telling her this, he was also prodding and poking her body. She could feel everything on the right, but not much on the left. Sometimes it felt muted, other times she didn’t feel anything. In the meantime her brain was starting to wake up as well and she was getting somewhat frustrated at not being able to reply.

The doctor continued speaking, seemingly oblivious to her growing distress. “Unfortunately due to your fall after you had your stroke, you also broke your right leg. This mean you will stay in hospital a bit longer before we let you go to the rehabilitation center. Everything else however seems to be perfectly fine. Any questions for me at all?”

Then the doctor winced slightly realizing that was a rather stupid thing to ask to someone who couldn’t speak at the moment. “I apologize ma’am. It’s such an automatic question to ask. We will soon arrange something for you so you can make yourself heard. Let me just get your visitors back in and let you enjoy your rest after that.”

The doctor left and in came Peter and Emma. Susan was quite happy to see them even if she couldn’t talk to them at the moment.

Peter and Emma sat down next to her bed and just looked at her for a moment. “You are incredibly lucky that Mr. Thomas came back from the pub late and saw your late was still on in the kitchen at one in the morning. If he hadn’t gone to check up on you, you wouldn’t have been found until the next morning and it might have been too late.” Emma said, tears gathering in her eyes.

Peter nodded. “You were rather cold when they found you. After all, the kitchen floor isn’t a very warm place to be. And we were really worried when you wouldn’t wake up. I am just glad to see you awake right now.”

Somehow she managed to portray her worries about the farm and other things to Peter and Emma with a look.

“Yes, your farm is looked after properly. We’ve closed everything up in the house, and once a week someone will be in there cleaning it up a little. All the families on the farm know what they have to do the upcoming weeks, as you’ve just had that meeting. The only thing we now have to do is inform Petunia that you’re in hospital and see if we can get her to come over with Harry.”

Susan privately thought Petunia would most certainly not do this, but she could always hope. It didn’t look like Harry could stay over anytime soon however. And this made her rather sad, as she had promised the boy a visit, and he’d been so thrilled by her invitation.

“I’ve just had an idea,” Emma said. “At the moment you can’t properly communicate with us because of your paralysis. However, there is nothing wrong with your right hand. Now I saw these wooden boards with letters on them, that way you can point us the letters of the things you want to say to us. And I think it might just be possible for me to take out our old computer and bring it here so you could even type whatever it is you try to make clear.”

Susan tried to smile, but felt it came out rather a grimace with her mouth not fully co-operating. This was a good idea, and it would make communicating everything so much easier. After all, her mind seemed to be working just fine, apart from the tiny defect that caused her to be half paralyzed.

“We’ll come back tomorrow and talk to you then. For now visiting hours are over, alright Susan?”

Peter and Emma squeezed her hand and then they left. Tired, Susan fell asleep quickly.