I would like to tell you something about my neighbours Chris and Julia Garmish.
Chris developed a worsening serious heart condition and was hospitalized late last year to Queen Elizabeth, Birmingham with the hope to have a heart transplant.
He lay in that hospital for months waiting for a suitable donor heart with his own heart deteriorating.
At some point the surgeons decided that the heart had reached such a critical point that other measures must be taken. The option was for Chris to have an 'assistor' pump which is carried externally and piped through his body into his heart. This was not his first choice but accepted there was nowhere else to go.
The pump was duly fitted and Chris started, with tremendous support from his wife, Julie, the slow and tortuous return to health.
The improvement to his health was steady dramatic and a new vitality was returning.
We were advised that the A465, the main road that passes our house was to be closed for a number of weeks to allow for bridge repairs at Stoke Lacy to be carried out.
Chris contacted me with an idea to have a Street Party during the closure because, as he said, WE CAN. He single handedly, with support from Julie arranged the whole thing with beer donated by the Wye Valley brewery, bales of hay for seating, tables for masses of foodstuffs provided by all the locals all with no other assistance. A fantastic achievement for a man that was so desperately ill earlier this year.
The following photos show what a happy event this was. Well done Chris!!