chapter 16

Madeleine thought it best to give Tim a few days to settle in before she paid him a visit.
The journey was pleasant enough, even if she had some scarily narrow single track twisting lanes to negotiate with high walls and hedges either side and passing places. How on earth had they got a van down here? She thought as she put the car into reverse yet again to let another driver passed.
The bariatric facility was set back off the lane, on a steep hillside, behind height stone walls and lots of greenery.
It was an old Victorian schoolhouse, she realised as she parked her car in the old school yard and mounted the steps up to the iron studded oak door.
She had to use the intercom as she'd been instructed and wait for someone to meet her. She waited for a good few minutes and was starting to think she had come to the wrong place before the door opened, but then again in a building this size it was probably a good five minute walk from one side to the other.
She was taken directly into the main school hall, which had been converted to a ward. On either side of the walls, there were wide bariatric beds, which were electronically operated to move into a variety of positions. In each bed was a person if immense size. Each one was eating or sleeping. Many of them had feeding tubes in their nose attached to peristaltic pumps.
Above the beds was a hoist system and each of the beds had a curtain screen between them that could be pulled to make a little curtained cubicle so that necessary cares could be carried out.
Little helpers scurried about, topping up feeds and other necessary jobs.
Madeleine saw Tim at the other end of the hall. Despite his fourty stone bulk he looked small in comparison to some of the other customers here.
He was busy sucking on a wide tube with some thick gloopy substance in it. He recognised Madeleine's presence, but only for an instant. His attention distracted by his feeding.
This was not what she'd expected at all! She'd though Tim would be subjected to a starvation diet, forced to lose all the lovely fat he had accumulated since their wedding day.
Tim would be happy here. As long as he had something to eat...

"You've had such a long journey." The woman who had greeted her at the front door remarked. " why don't you sit down in our kitchen and have a cup of tea?"

Madeleine was grateful for the offer of refreshment. She was rather thirsty.
She was taken into another large room with beautiful views over the valley. It was an L shaped roomwith high ceilings. On one leg of the L, two chefs were busy at work cooking and chopping. The other leg of the L was taken up with a large wooden table and benches where the staff could relax.
Someone poured her a cup of tea, someone else described how well Tim had settled in. She'd done such a good job. He was a credit to her hard work. Would she like a biscuit with her tea?
Madeleine thanked them. She didn't usually eat biscuits, but these were delicious! Could she have another?
She was offered the whole plate. She laughed! No she couldn't possibly!
They made her another cup of tea and heaped in the sugar. She felt compelled to drink it and finished off the biscuits. Now she felt very strange, woozy.
Would she like to lie down?
She couldn't remember what happened next, she must have drifted off to sleep, but when she woke she was still in the kitchen and ravenously hungry. A full Sunday roast dinner was thrust in front of her. Madeleine ate eagerly and messily until it was all gone. That plate was taken away and a stodgy pudding was thrust in front of her.

Eat up, one of the helpers told her. If you want to continue looking after your husband, you've got to build up your strength. Eat. Push yourself the way you pushed him. One day, it'll be you in that bed, unable to do anything for yourself.
Madeleine looked up to the podgy speaker and pushed a spoonful of suet pudding and custard into her mouth. There was nothing more in this world she would like better!