Case study 2: Papa

Papa - General Reading - 26 April 1991

Was informed that my father, aged 78, was in hospital following an accident and he was not expected to survive much longer with his feeble heart. I was responsible for steering several final year students through their project work and felt that it would be unfair on them and on my colleagues if I dropped all my commitments to return "home" to see him as I very much wanted to.

CENTRE

0: East over Woodcutter

East refers to self - papa in this case.

This was something we had to hack our way through.

There will be success in a new venture. An auspicious start to a new project.

EAST – Self - How others see you (papa)

1: Lute

retired - recuperation through convalescence.

3: Jade

Enduring - long life

Yourself

2: Duck

Needs support and companionship - anxious and concern for others

SOUTH – recent past and near future

4: North over Scholar
Difficult, fallow period. Teaching and learning aspects of communication emphasised.

5: Centre
Querent is concerned about making improvements.

6: Carp

Longevity, recovery from illness, comes to term with situation

WEST – problems and challenges

7: Lotus

Querent should guard against fraud.

9: Peach

Quarrels involving young woman

8: Mushroom
Unusual but happy turn of events.

NORTH – long term (possibly problem zone as well)

10: Commence (with Heaven next to it)
We cannot change fate - put away worry and care - and forget ambition for the moment,

11: Heaven over farmer
Heaven - mystical assistance & blessings; farmer - need for bodily effort and exercise.

12: East
Even the worst of problems can be solved.

The outcome
I decided to postpone the visit home until after the examiners' meetings. My sister and brother-in-law from Australia were already there to look after him. He was laid up in bed like a baby and had lost his self confidence and was also very feeble. My sister & I hunted in vain for a suitable and affordable nursing home. I knew that we had to get him back on his feet although I was repeatedly told that his heart was weak and that I would be responsible if it failed. Within the two months that I was there, we put him through progressively more demanding exercises and had him walking round the housing block and climbing the stairs back to his flat on the second floor. He was very frightened and exhausted to begin with but talking to those he met on his way and visiting some neighbours spurred him on and cheered him up. By chance, we found a family, looking for a home, to live in and look after him and I was able to return to UK. As stipulated by the Mah Jongg, papa had to exercise and tone his body; and he lived to age 93. The hopeless situation resolved itself almost as if someone up there was assisting my father. Although I might have killed my father by forcing him to exert himself, the reading made me realise that the best thing we could do was rebuild his confidence and his ability to have a better quality of life. It gave me the courage to take that risk against the odds at that time.

With quality assurance of UK universities, teaching and learning became important and I was made chairperson of the newly founded Departmental Teaching and Learning Committee in 1994. Much to the irritation of many colleagues, I was rather over-zealous in starting a number of initiatives. Also, a younger woman and I also fell out over matters relating to my father - she is still aggrieved and cannot get over it.

Normally, if the reading is wrong, it tends to be wildly out. For example, it will not allow one to pry into the affairs of others.

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