The view from the window

I was out visiting some old friends of mine today; old in terms of knowing them, but young at heart. They are avid gardeners and they asked me about Independent Gardening and why I had set up the company. As I talked to them about why I was so passionate about the importance of gardens and their impact on us, there was a slight pause in the conversation. 'When I am bed bound' she said, 'I am going to be surrounded by windows so I can look out all over my garden'. And that in a nutshell is why I feel this company is so important. Someone has to stand alongside the occupational therapists, the families of those injured, and those people, qualified or not who care, and say ' what we look out on is as important as how we are looked after'. When the view from your window is a concrete wall you might as well be in a prison. Being imprisoned in your mind through brain injury is a 'hell' I hope you and I don't have to go through. But for those who are, they deserve something better than to be surrounded by machinery, walls, curtains and hushed voices. The view from their windows is as important as the touch of someone who cares. The play of light and shadow across the trees, or the movement of clouds in a sky provides a scene of variety and life to those wheelchair or bedbound that those of us who are more mobile and 'cognitive' don't always appreciate, because after all, we are often too busy to stop and notice. Giving people a view from their window is not difficult, nor is it expensive. It is a case of seeing what is possible, and making it happen. And that is why this work is so so important.