GRASPED
“You have GRASPED the rope to tight, hold it
firm – just slacken it up a bit.” Said my instructor. I tried, but I was so
scared that I would fall. How ever did I get talked into doing this? It was at
Rosie’s hen night that the conversation turned to fundraising for the local
cottage hospital. All the small ones were closing and this was the last one in
the area. It wasn’t big enough to do large operations, but it did the minor
ones, cuts and bruises, flu jabs, various treatments and whatever was
necessary. Besides all this they had facilities for doing a crèche, and a spare
room for hire. This is booked for quite a lot of various meetings – local
W.I., jumble sales, scouts, etc. Now this lovely old building was to be closed
and possibly demolished. Well, the hen night carried on to its usual noisy,
drinks flowing kind of evening with everyone enjoying themselves.
In the weeks
that followed various friends carried on the conversation of the fundraising.
Some suggestions were outright silly, which gave all a good laugh but there was
2 or 3 that were worth thinking further. Jumble sales and the like were
dismissed as being boring – they wanted to do something more exciting. It was
Rosie who saw an article in the local paper about learning to absail. Four of
us –after talking and thinking lots about it – said that we would have a go.
So, after a course of six weeks training in a local school gym, here we were
getting kitted out to do it for real!
The instructor had booked a 10 storey
building in the town’s main square for the event. Don’t know about the 2 other
people on the course but I suspect they were as terrified as us four. Too late
– the day had arrived, we went to the top of the building in a lift, then up a
few steps, through a door and we stepped out onto the roof. It seemed so high
and people were getting jittery, but the instructor reassured and calmed
everyone down and one by one we did our absail. After a few feet all nerves
disappeared then we were on the ground. The way down was in a blur and over so
quickly. A crowd of people had gathered to watch and applauded each one as they
landed. It all seemed so unreal.
The next day there was quite a piece in the
paper with photos. It made us feel quite proud of ourselves. What made it even
better was that sponsor money came in from people we didn’t know that had either
watched us or had seen it in the paper. I can’t remember the exact amount but
it certainly was enough to keep out little cottage hospital open, so we said
that after all we had put ourselves through it had been worth it but I doubt if
we would do anything like that ever again.
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