“What holidays?!”

from Cardiff Times - August 2023

Quality care in a place you can call home

by Wyn Evans

You wait all year for the summer holidays to arrive and when they do it’s to warnings on Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme this morning not to go near dead birds or seals on the Pembrokeshire coast for fear of cross contamination with bird flu; Just Stop Oil walking for mile after mile in front of vehicles, preventing folk going on holiday in the first place; high temperatures on the continent threatening lives and homes in an arc from Spain through the Greek islands; and, closer to home, the futile attempt to make every minute of the holidays full of learning and meaning for our kids.

I am writing at the end of week 1 of the holidays although it feels like we’ve already had a fortnight off. My 17 year old daughter was given permission to be absent from school for the final week of term allowing her to attend the annual summer camp run by an excellent charity called ‘21Plus’. It’s a five-day residential course aimed at 14-21 year old young adults with Down Syndrome and this year’s was held at

Culmington Manor in Shropshire. It takes the form of a sports/adventure camp with inputs from specialist speech therapists (an important resource for those with DS). The Girl loves the camp, and it was all I could do to prevent her telling everyone she was starting her holidays a week early. “Not so”, I’d interject, “the course is part of your education, it’s just like going to school.”

This simply earned me uncomprehending looks. Much like the ones I gave my dad when, fifty-seven years ago, he told me he’d decided that I could have a weekly comic. I assumed that he’d allow me agency in choosing what comic to take and had already narrowed it down to a straight choice between The Beano and a Marvel comic, possibly Thor. You can imagine my joy when, on the following Thursday along with that day’s South Wales Echo they delivered my new comic: ‘Look and Learn’. Over the months I came to appreciate some of the articles but they did not match up to the extra-terrestrial adventures of Marvel or the ribald, subversive, scatological humour of The Beano. (It’s such a shame that, for the comic’s 85th birthday edition this week, it has gone woke. Still, be kind!)

Then this week, the de jure first week of the holiday, The Girl spent three days helping out at the Barinowsky School of Ballet’s three day summer school. I say ‘helping out’ with the younger kids but I think she saw it more as an opportunity for joining in. The irrepressible Miss Emily was glad of The Girl’s presence and I am grateful to Emily for all she has done for my daughter over the years.

All these activities essentially meant that my first holiday duties as stay-at-home-Dad did not arise until the Thursday of the first week, yesterday. Naturally, she started with a lie-in and ignored me when I tried to get her to leave her bed (“Da-ad, it’s holidays; I neeed a lie-in.”). Then followed a battle over whether she would take her shower a.m. or p.m. She settled on a morning one leading to battle number three – would she wash her hair (she would), and number four – could she not use too much conditioner please (she couldn’t). Still, I found the one guaranteed sure-fire way of winning her round: a promise of lunch at Bentley’s café on Wellfield Road. We love Bentley’s. Distraught we were those few years ago when it appeared that the writing was on the wall, but it has come back as strong as ever and The Girl happily tucked into her cheese Panini and chips… and promptly exercised it all away with a two-hour session at her second home, Twisters South Wales Trampoline Club, in Collivaud Place. And so ended the ‘de facto father and daughter first day of the holidays’, with a knackered young person happily retreating to her computer and thence to bed.

Getting in the bouncing practice is important. The Girl will be representing Wales as a Region in the Inter-Regional Challenge Cup Final later this summer. She’s earned a move up a few classes and will be presenting by far the most difficult routine she’s ever attempted, against more experienced opposition than she’s faced before, some of whom are simply awesome. The height these kids can reach and their facility to twist and spin in the air has to be seen to be believed. Yet, The Girl has competitively earned her place on the team and is there on merit. That’s to look forward to.

July 23rd was the 11th anniversary of my dad’s death in 2012. He had cancer. I don’t think of him any less and, of course, I still miss him. But the passage of time does take the edge off. Some years ago we’d been due a trip to Ludlow which we had to cancel. So, The Boss and I decided to use the Girl-free time available to us when our daughter was on her summer camp in Shropshire to visit Ludlow. What a remarkable town it is. There are well-over five hundred listed buildings there, many of them replete with Tudor beams. There were delightful delis and cafes and seemingly no end of independent, non-chain shops. We stayed in The Feathers Hotel which can trace its history back in excess of six hundred years (see picture attached). I was surprised at the history of the town and the extent to which its central location gave it an important role in the commercial and political life of Wales across the centuries.

By the time you read this the hols will be close to ending. The Girl will enter Year 13 with us having to decide what options to follow at Year 14. As well as college options we will need to consider initiatives like Project Search, Work Fit and others which give support to young folk with disabilities, allowing them to build and display skills in the work place. The future seems a very serious place whenever I contemplate these options. Still, The Girl always gives her all, is hard to daunt, and has a fiercely determined side to her nature. These traits will hopefully stand her in good stead as she contemplates her future.

Good luck to our readers and your families as you too approach the new academic year.