"after I perform your autopsy" the doctor stated.

Thirty years past and having written thousands of descriptive pages with detailed sketches of jewellery, I  now attempt the daunting task of describing my colourful and often bizarre life.

“I’ll have the answer after I perform your autopsy”…the words from a bland faced Neurologist sent shock waves through my mind. Without bothering to reply I left the room. That was fifteen years ago.

Half paralyzed with the demon of multiple sclerosis, I immersed myself in every piece of literature and clinical study relevant to neurology and autoimmune diseases. The first few months were spent plotting my escape from the dreaded walking stick. Within a few months I stood at the front door, dropped the stick, and mentally placed one foot in front of the other. It worked, I found myself walking ten paces to the garden gate! Neuropathic pain numbing my left side, muscle spasms and optic neuritis threatening my eyesight, vertigo, ice pick headaches……. They  are all too familiar. It’s just whether you acknowledge them or not. A choice of mind over matter.

Simple sensible eating, cutting out saturated fats, continuous activity and positive thoughts have kept me on my feet. Yes, there have been occasional heavy doses of intravenous corticosteroids, and Beta-Interferon injected every alternative day for years, with horrific side effects such as fever flu-like symptoms, nausea and sweating, and drug induced depression. This is in the past…and now I choose to walk up mountains and get chased by wild animals!

You see, this perhaps goes back to the days as a boy in a bush war. The ‘70s was spent with every young boy serving compulsory military service. Many of us ended up in special units, fighting a raging war on the border of Angola and South Africa. Here there was no such thing as defeat. The world had sanctions against us (despite the fact that we were up against Soviet backed forces) lasting two decades, we faced armies of Cubans, Russians and guerilla terrorists. Here we quickly learnt that as long as there was breath and a heartbeat you were alive! We learnt the smell of death… learnt to ignore the heat, blood and dirt of war. Keep walking…keep running…keep fighting, whatever it takes, nothing is impossible.

Ironically, I became intrigued by this Soviet nation who had audaciously invaded our African continent. After all, they were so far from home in such a foreign environment. Recently my curiosity led me in a chain of events to purchasing a house in Bulgaria, an ex-communist country! ‘What were you thinking, have you gone crazy’ everyone asked. Well, that led me to three long haul trips within one year, (remember Bulgaria and S.Africa are hemispheres apart). The old house had all the charm with its grapevines and orchard, complete with a pretty water well. Subsistence rural country life a-la soviet style!

                                                                                 
The last couple of years saw the old house standing empty, albeit furnished in forties style original décor. There just had to be a use for this sad home, now void of the old lady who had spent her life toiling the garden and embroidering her blankets.

Then one day last year the answer  revealed itself. The greatest answer I could have ever wished for…