Ray and I went to WAGS this morning. We hadn't been to this group which is the parent group for the Scallywags group he goes to on Fridays. There were about 40 people, survivors and caregivers and family members there , so quite a big group. It was mostly a business meeting so a lot of agenda items but also reports on past activities as well as planning of future activities.

In Australia there are non-profit groups that can apply for designated government funding in certain areas so the WAGS group has tapped into some significant funds,meaning that most of their activities are not fully paid for by the members but subsidised from funding. This allows them to do much more than the members can usually afford on small fixed incomes. I guess this is another example of numbers making a difference and a benefit of belonging to such a group.

Even during the business meeting certain personalities shone out. The joker, a middle aged woman, gave a report on her husband's recent stroke and a quite graphic demonstration of his urinary problems which made us all laugh. Even those who had not had the problem could see the humor in a wife learning to look after her husband's needs in this way for the first time.

Another report on the Scallywags excursion included Ray's infamous fall and another man's encounter with a drunken woman on the ferry that made for an interesting story. This one involved the woman carrying a wrapped fish, which he said was a salmon, and how he came to knock it out of her hand and over the side of the boat and "release it into the water". This too made for a lot of laughter. The use of humour seems to make for a more comfortable take on an event and left us all waiting to see what new tricks the Scallywags group would come up with on their next adventure.

There is an upcoming women's weekend in November, for women survivors and women who are caregivers. Until recently there have not been enough women survivors for them to have their own group though now numbers are growing so in years to come there may be two seperate groups, one for women caregivers and one for women survivors. I am going to see if I can go on the weekend, which is only local but will have guest speakers and a promise of "pampering" including massage. There is some funding to provide home caring for the survivors who need this while their primary caregiver is away for the weekend so I will investigate that too.

There were other future fundraising and social activities mentioned but held over till the next meeting. So we will go as often as we are available on the first Saturday of the month to get to know this body of women and men who have had the life changing experience that we have had with stroke survival, all different, but all with that in common.

I came away feeling positive about the experience. I could see some future doors opening for us as we share in others' experiences and tap into the group wisdom. With such numbers there are bound to be some friendly faces that say more than "hello". I was pleased to see the Scallywag members greeting Ray by name this morning. These may not be "friends" but they are certainly well-wishers and travellers on the journey who may some day become our friends.