A Collection of Writings
I want to tell you about my Auntie Ingid. It's her website and she's not here at the moment so I might as well take advantage of her absence, especially as I see that it hasn't been updated for months.
First, though, I'd like to say that she had the big operation she has been waiting for for over a year. She had it on September 11th and there were no complications.
So what have I to say about her? Well how about saying that she is just about the most loving, caring person I have ever met. She is always there for you, will go to any lengths to help and loves just about everybody. For instance - after I had a divorce and had to return to England, she found me a wonderful job, helped furnish a house I rented and then looked after my 4 year old for a whole year while I sorted myself out.
I don't know how she does it. She's had just about every operation known to women-kind but still goes on as if nothing has happened. When she had her first cancer operation she was in a touring play for Bill Kenwright called DIAL M FOR MURDER. When Bill found out that she had to go into hospital he told her that the play would be there for her as soon as she was fit. It was a great inspiration to recover and she loves Bill for it. She had the op and was back on stage three weeks later.
She was booked up for a P.A. in Nottingham when she had her third operation. Determined not to miss it, she left the hospital still with a catheter attached, did the show and then had to be driven straight back to the hospital. That takes guts and - I must admit - a gallant type of stupidity.
Shortly after this, she went to Argentina for the BBC to do a programme called SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. She lived there for a while back in the early seventies. She developed a breathing problem and when she came back had to be hospitalised. After a couple of weeks she left, still with a breathing problem but taking a course of steroids. Although her health got gradually worse, she carried on as if nothing was happening to her. She made a couple of movies, appeared on TV shows and wrote two books during this period. Then one night she collapsed and had to be taken into hospital.
Unfortunately the assumption was that it was more of the same. Her lungs! She was being treated for this and had ballooned out to over fourteen stone when she had a stroke. If it is possible to say she was lucky - she was! She actually collapsed in her ward in front of a Nurse. The Nurse recognised the symptoms and immediately gave her oxygen. This prevented some of the horrific after-effects of a stroke and she had no physical defects. But for three months she could hardly speak.
As she began to realise what had happened to her, it was amazing what her will power was able to accomplish. She played old tapes and videos of herself and was able to put her brain back together again. With no help from the Speech Therapists. She had literally had the 'be prepared for the worse' speech when a cardiologist she happens to know, Dr. Robin Roberts, dropped in to see her. He instantly recognised that she had a heart condition - not a lung condition - and whipped her up to his ward. (I know that sounds amazing - but it is fact).
Within 10 days her weight was down to ten stone and she was breathing normally. But she had a heart problem. Then she began to get violent pains in her stomach. This was diagnosed as a tumour. She was scheduled for an operation on the 24th October 2001. But the anaesthetist refused to take part until the heart problem had been fixed.
The dilemma was that she was by now so physically weak that no one wanted to risk an operation on her heart. She was transferred to The Royal Brompton. While she was there she did an interview for the new WICKER MAN DVD - about to be released - and a couple of interviews for radio. She also bunked off to the studio to record some stuff for the VAMPIRE LOVERS DVD. And there was a voice over for an Anime feature called DOMINATOR due for airing on the SciFi channel next month.
Every year Ingrid holds a Fan Club Reunion in the Polish Centre, Hammersmith. It looked as if Ingid wouldn't be making it. A stupid assumption to make. She schlamoozled a couple of her doctors to attend and got the hospital to agree that she could make a token appearance. She stayed, had dinner and didn't leave until after 11 o'clock. I was impressed and so was everyone else I think.
Just to add to her troubles she suddenly went blind in the left eye. Enough to knock the stuffing out of anyone you would think. Not my Auntie Ingid. She demanded, and got, an operation on her eye. Unfortunately it was not a success. She shrugged that aside to be taken up later. What she wanted was somebody to fix her heart so that she could have the stomach operation in safety. She found Dr. Vince Paul. He fixed her heart. Now she went looking for a stomach surgeon and found Prof. Simon Melville. He was game, and actually did the deed on 9/11.
Through all this turmoil Ingid just kept on going as if nothing was happening. She turned out for a jamboree at the university in Malaga, did a stint at the university in Valenciennes and even went for a festival in Chicago. She also did a number of shows in this country.
Her one big regret is that she didn't make Scotland in August. It was three weeks after her heart operation and she was feeling fine. Then the night before she was due to leave she woke up with a huge abscess on the scar tissue and a fever. She said it had come from nowhere but I suspect she had been ignoring it for days - determined to make the trip to Glasgow.
Ingid is already making plans for the next few months. She has half a dozen shows booked - including a trip to America - and the doctors have agreed, cautiously, that she will be fit and able in time.
It's wonderful having an Auntie like Ingid. She's such a fantastic inspiration. And the best friend you could ever have. Her next big goal is her granddaughter's second birthday party at the end of September - and there is absolutely no doubt that she will make it. And the Fan Club Reunion scheduled for the end of November as well.
They don't build 'em like Auntie Ingid any more.