The news was good.

With the NHS waiting list for ‘routine’ appointments (my GP had marked my referral as routine as she couldn’t feel the lumps) running at 12 weeks in this Board area I called the Friendly Society which I’ve been a member of for years (Benenden – £7.80 per month flat rate regardless of age or previous medical history) and they immediately ok’d diagnostic testing up to a maximum of £1500.

I saw a lovely Consultant on Friday 7th Jan and he instructed three tests: mammogram, ultrasound and needle biopsy.

I wasn’t imagining the lumps (the GP’s not very pleasant bedside manner had me checking continually in the run up to the consultation). They are real. And they are benign.

The biopsy results aren’t back yet – but I’ve been told not to worry.

I am one of the lucky ones.

Workaholic Robert took time off and came with me on Friday.

It’s a funny old thing how relationship complacency is bust by a wee bit of worry. We spend most of our lives together ignoring or taking one another for granted or pulling one another apart. Then discover that we are there for one another when it counts most.

When the testing was over we decided to go for lunch. The Nuffield Hospital is less than a mile from Glasgow Uni and the West End – my 2nd home for so long – and I found myself automatically driving down University Avenue and towards Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum – back entrance

Parking was difficult and we were about to give up and move on when a car moved on and we got their prime space.

We opted for the basement cafe and its table service and fresh good food.

The cafe conservatory

Our waitress was a punchy spiky Glaswegian – energising and uplifting. Nosy. In yer face. Happy. Laughing and joking. Slagging banter and self-deprecation a speciality.

We placed our order. Robert read his paper and I looked out of the modern glass cage we were sitting in – over the car park and up to the dark University spire.

Glasgow University from Kelvingrove

The cold sun spilled through greying clouds and lit up the modernist conservatory. And there was the naked truth of it all revealed to me.

I was in the right place. I was with someone I loved and who loved me. The generosity of our waitress was uplifting. This day was just the beginning. And I was overcome by such a stark and perfect and beautiful joy.