"Sorry but a late post again. I had an unsettled night of interrupted sleep and constant coughing. Woke up weak in body, breathless and tired. Nothing can improve until the hospital can examine all the tests to come back in the New Year. It's a case of stay in a hospital bed meanwhile or occupy my own bed, where I have less chance of picking up another infection from being on a hospital ward.
Sheila and I wish all of our family and friends a very happy New Year. May peace, happiness and good health be your constant companions and may you never be too far away from you partners, family, friends, neighbours and God to appreciate all the days of last year and the year still to come.
Ever since Sheila hitched her wagon up to mine four years ago, the ride has been the best of journeys, despite the bumpy ground beneath us travelled. I have known love before, but never on a scale that I know it now. The beauty is that I both love and feel loved more today than I did yesterday, and yet I know it will be less than I will feel tomorrow.
In years gone by, I never allowed the start of a New Year to pass without the making of a resolution. Last year's language was made up of last year's words, hopes, expectations, and experiences, but this year's words await a new voice befitting my changed circumstances. I make no resolutions for the New Year of 2017, for the practice of making plans is too tenuous a task for the man who has everything he ever wanted out of life and has had much more than he ever deserved.
Let me keep my Sheila, my Haworth, my family, my friends, my God, my love of writing and my life for another year, for I still have things left unsaid, unseen and undone, and there is still much to do in this fading body of mine before all light is finally extinguished. Happy New Year all. Bill and Sheila xxxxx" January 1st, 2017.