Judith Proctor's Journal

 Let's see if I can do at least one post in a bit more detail...

Oswin, my granddaughter, is 8 now. Still an only grandchild, though I cross my fingers that Henry and his lovely wife may decide to have a child some day.

Oswin's Mama has been exhausted for a couple of years now with long Covid.  That combined with Granny's sciatica had left her pretty stressed out, as two of her immediate family were unwell most of the time.

Partly as a result of this, she tends to be a rather nervous and a bit of a 'wuss'.  When doing swimming lessons at school, she was using a back float with four sections and a long polystyrene 'noodle' under her arms  - and even then she was scared to go out of her depth and the idea of jumping into the pool was terrifying.

Luckily, the sciatica operation means I can now swim again!

 Oswin's swimming teacher asked me if I could help her over the summer, as Oswin's class are supposed to be totally without floats next year.

I'm pleased to say that with a summer of regular pool visits, silly games, encouragement and also determination on Oswin's side, she can now:

Jump into the pool (that was really scary for her, and we had to work up to it in gentle stages).  She now loves this and does it for fun like any normal child.

Swim a width of doggy paddle with no swim aids.

Swim half a width of breast stroke.

I took her to splashdown as a reward.

When I got to the bottom of the first slide, I knew it was a terrible mistake. The water slide was long and twisty, tossing you from side to side. Part of it was in complete blackness.

I got to the bottom and waited for a screaming, petrified Oswin...

What I got was - "Can I do it again!"

You have rarely seen a more relived grandparent! We did virtually every water slide they had - with the exception of the 'black' rides, which we both deemed to be too scary - and were noticeably less popular with the public at large.