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BRIAN BANNERMAN 31ST AUGUST 1935:
Whilst still at school, Brian worked backstage in a theatre in Cape Town. He met local opera singers and those who came from overseas. It was his ambition to be an Opera singer.
He later took singing lessons with Fioscanara at the Opera School in Cape Town but eventually decided that he was not good enough and started training in the Hotel business at the Grand Hotel in Cape Town.
He finished his training at the Central Hotel in Johannesburg. This is where we met. I was working as a hotel receptionist and we were married after he qualified. Our daughter was born whilst we were working at the Central Hotel in Mbabane in Swaziland. It was not easy working in the Hotel business with a baby so we went back to Johannesburg and Brian worked at Nasfeeds whilst studying a C I S Part-time . It was at this stage we joined the Anglican church and within a year the Diocese invited him to join the Fund Raising division where he worked for two years. He was then invited to become Stewardship Director for the Natal Diocese, where he worked for twelve years. He was involved in teaching stewardship in Parishes, helped and organised the Regional Councils and was involved in Group Training travelling to Mozambique, the then Rhodesia and Zululand.
He was instrumental in raising one and a half million rand for the Clergy Pensions Appeal. He loved this work but it meant that he was away from home a great deal. Brian then joined Huletts Sugar as Training Manager and worked at all the mills, running courses and doing visioning.
At the age of 63, they asked him to take early retirement and work on as a consultant working on the transformation. He also at the same time joined RGA Consultants and was involved in several other projects such as S A cricket, the Newspapers, Municipal Health Department and Durban Metro.
In November 2002 he was invited by the Grubb Institute to join a course in London. "Why you?" I asked "You are the oldest member in your team."
I was told that he was chosen because he had the most experience in TEE Group Training. The course lasted 7 days and he stayed with his brother John, in London. He had to catch one bus and two underground trains to get to the Grubb Institute every day. He phoned me every day and I gathered from the calls, that he was very stressed. He complained about the traffic and wasn't enjoying it at all. He said that he had learnt nothing new.
After London he was asked to help run a workshop in Canterbury. He later told me that he had had trouble with numbness in his right hand and couldn't remember what he had said or done for the opening session which he ran.
The day before he was due to fly home he phoned our daughter and told her that he thought that he'd had a slight stroke. She in turn phoned Dr Krausey, his cardiologist, who said that he must see a doctor before he flies as his recommendation was that he should fly with oxygen, if at all. He found a doctor at the airport who hospitalised him for tests and his flight was postponed. They gave him a clear bill of health saying that they couldn't find anything obviously wrong. He flew home on the Friday.
On arrival we went straight to consult with Dr Krausey who did various tests. Brian drove to Swaziland, before the test results were out, and ran a three day workshop and complained of being very tired throughout.
The next morning after he arrived home, the 14th December, I found him on the floor next to the bed, where he'd fallen out. He had to be helped up and was battling to speak clearly.
He spent three weeks in St Augustines after he'd been diagnosed as having had a stroke. Dr Staub was the attending Neurologist and Dr Krausey helped aswell. Dr Staub thought he'd had a seizure at the time of the stroke and they found that his carotid artery was also very blocked. It was from here that the clot causing the stroke had dislodged.
We had to now decide, given the options of an operation to clear the artery and the trauma of an anaesthetic , insert a stent or leave it as it was as it had probably been like that for years and why disturb something that seemed to have worked for a while already. Dr Staub was very sympathetic to our cause and also offered very sound advice, stating all the facts and experiences that he had encountered. He was also willing to see/speak to all of us at any time should we need help, guidance and advice - all at little cost.
Although we eventually decided not to do anything about the clogged artery, a problem manifested with Brian's right eye and on the advice of the Eye Specialist we consulted with Prof John Robbs. He suggested that the artery be cleared by surgery as soon as possible as the lack of blood supply to the eye would eventually render him blind. The damage to the eye could not be repaired but blindness could be avoided. He had the surgery and was only in hospital for a short while.
Since then we regularly attend Occupational Therapy, Physio Therapy and Speech Therapy. Improvement seems to be slow and arduous but he is now walking quite well with a tripod. His right hand is still non-functional and his speech improves slowly. He enjoys meeting with other stroke patients at Headway every Thursday morning.
On September 14th it will be 9 months since the stroke. He is now enjoying his music again and is even singing again. He remembers the words of all the songs - even the Italian words! He is not reading however which is something he used to do, but does watch a lot of TV. His memory is not good, asking over and over again "what are we doing today?" "...tomorrow?" ....
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