Charlie Goes To Dinner

Charlie Goes to Dinner

It was in the late 1980s when I was in hospital having an operation that this specific Charlie escapade occurred.

It was an emergency operation for the removal of my gall bladder and back then this was an operation to be reckoned with; at the time I was told by a medical practitioner that it was second only to a heart transplant! I was informed that I would be quite ill for some time and, that also I would need a recuperation period for some 6 weeks. So all my arrangements had to be organised in a hurry - in less than a week!

I have to say that this period was an extremely hard time for me, not only had I been ill for so long, but I also had a stalker, plus I was also enjoying the ministrations of a doctor who had not listened to me or even thought about my symptoms for some 5 years. I was a single mother and my then local dr. kept telling me that my pain and agony was because I was suffering from some type of neurosis due to my “affliction” of being in this situation! He even gave me some hugely nasty anti-depressive tablets. I took one and felt I was looking at world below whilst hanging off the ceiling, so naturally they all ended up down the loo…obviously neither helpful nor suitable for me. Anyone who has suffered from gall bladder pain will know what I am talking about so I will not elaborate further. Suffice to say I ended up diagnosing myself via the auspices of the Reader’s Digest. Thank-you Reader’s Digest.

All my symptoms pointed to a gall bladder problem so armed with this knowledge I took myself back to the dr.’s surgery whereby via a huge stroke of luck there was a Locum – an Englishman - standing in for the usual dr. I spoke about my issue and he immediately ordered a test that confirmed my self-diagnosis. I did not even need to do part 2 of the test. The Locum, bless his cotton socks, sent me to a Specialist who said he needed me to present to the hospital the following Wednesday where he would admit me. All went according to plan; my operation went ahead, and my pain completely disappeared. I guess the removal of 14 stones will do that!

However, my problems were not over yet. I had re-joined a medical insurance company quite a few months prior to this personal debacle and diagnosis. So, when I was discharged from the hospital after having this much needed operation, I found that I owed a huge amount of money because the dr., who had misdiagnosed my illness for 5 years, decided that I had taken some sort of short cut to be “fixed”. On this basis I had to make financial arrangements to pay the hospital each fortnight. A big effort for a single mother who had no financial help from anyone at all. However, I was most thankful for the leniency of the Hospital’s Accounts Department – when after twelve months of payments – they decided to allow me to forgo the remaining amount owed to them. Of course, I changed doctors after this cruel treatment. My new dr. was a lovely chap with a lovely wife, who was the office manager and shared some of the same interests as me.

But to get to my Charlie story. Time was ticking and I had to sort out my family in a hurry. So, while I had peace of mind about the welfare of my sons, our ridgeback Charlie also needed to be cared for. Luckily, my dear friends Susie and Trevor offered to take Charlie home with them and mind her for the duration. If my memory serves me, they already had about three dogs however they assured me that one more dog would not matter in the slightest. And the fact is my lovely friends did not tell me this particularly embarrassing story until a couple of years after the event; and this is how it goes.

They had hosted a dinner party for about ten people where the guests all enjoyed their planned menu, the wine, the food, and the company. In fact, everything was going swimmingly until it came to my friends serving the final course of cheese and biscuits to their guests.

So, dessert over Susie and Trevor go out to the kitchen to bring in their previously prepared Cheese dishes to find them ---empty! Yes! empty plates – totally empty; no cheese, no biscuits. All Gone. In an effort, to see who the thieving rascal was, Susie decided to smell the breath of the now four dogs occupying the family room and discovered that indeed it was my Charlie who was the culprit – the one who sported the blue vein cheese-breath; the wicked one. She was also the tallest and possibly the greediest, especially if no one was looking!

I asked what they did instead, and Susie assured me that after the initial shock they laughed and decided to have fruit instead. But more importantly, our friendship was fine.

Good friends are invaluable and are just that - Good Friends.