If you have found this page it is because you know Mark had a stroke on Thursday evening. About 24 hours later he was rushed into surgery for over 4 hours due to pressure on his brain. He has been completely sedated since. He is lying still on a bed in the Critical Care Unit at University Hospital Coventry. He has 24 hour nursing care and constant data output - there is a big data project there to work out what to analyse.

The girls managed amazingly well in the sort of crisis you wouldn't wish on anyone. Mark's brother Chris was visiting England before his nephew's wedding on 17th so was able to come to be with them on Friday. Stuart and Carolyn have also visited, being in the country for the same reason. I arrived later Saturday afternoon from Sydney.

We are extremely grateful for all our friends and their concern for us. At the moment there really isn't much anyone who is not a doctor or a nurse can do except pray for peace for all of us. I am desperate for information so I can plan and organise! In the meantime we are all trying to find things to occupy our minds. Rowena is doing well with practising maths problems, Elisabeth is knitting a complicated hat, and I have email, paper writing and the practical task of trying to do the housetidying that Mark was goingto do before putting our Coventry house on the market in April. I wish I had understood what his plans were for the eyesore of pipes and bumpy plaster where we had a boiler removed!