This is the weird thought I had a couple of days ago when I was feeling a bit under the weather. I had had a nice, warm bath and I wrapped myself in a blanket and lay in bed for a precious five minutes reading my book. However, instead of being at home, I longed to be in a chair with a blanket (and my book) in a chalet half-way up a Swiss mountain. I felt the need for a three-month convalesce in Switzerland.
If I were to convalesce, I’d need a choice of tartan blanket
Why don’t we do that anymore? They used to do that is the books I read as a child (the sick, pale young girl was always being sent off to stay with great aunts by the sea, or even better, Switzerland, to ‘convalesce’). When did that quaint Victorian tradition end?
Now we just have to KBO as Churchill used to say. I don’t want to KBO when I’m feeling run down, I want to be sent ‘against my will’ to Switzerland, preferably with a small West Highland Terrier and a truck load of books (‘No, please don’t send me there! Really, please don’t!’). Why doesn’t anyone do that for me? I’m sure the family would cope for a few weeks without me and of course they could visit every weekend.
The view me and ‘Snowy’ would have
I’m not the only one to have this weird thought. The Daily Mail have beaten me to it. According to them, if we don’t take time to convalesce we end up in hospital. Is that not reason enough to bring this now long-gone tradition back?
One of the key ingredients for convalescence
Google tells me that you didn’t have to go all the way to Switzerland to convalesce during Victorian times (perhaps only the rich were able to do that). There were convalescent homes in this country which were buildings dedicated to the art of recovery.
The other key ingredient for convalescence
I’m not sure whether they allowed dogs though.
Leave a Reply