Deacon Nicholas and Alix Holmes
Nicholas and Alix feel very humbled by the warmth, love and compassion shown to them by all the parish community during Nicholas’s recent illness and wanted to share the following short health update:
2023 marked when Alix and I first met in Jersey in the Channel Island’s forty years ago, and after our wedding in 1988 and the birth of our two daughters, Charlotte, and Hannah, I thought I knew the story of my life, where I was in it, and what was coming next. However, as the old saying goes, ‘if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans’! In August last year, I was admitted to Queens Hospital, Romford after suddenly becoming seriously ill. I was subsequently diagnosed with a rare form of auto-immune encephalitis. Encephalitis is an uncommon, but life-threatening condition in which the brain becomes swollen. I received expert care from a specialist team of doctors based at Queen’s as well as Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and am continuing treatment and rehabilitation as an outpatient at Queen’s.
Of course, this journey has not only been mine, but Alix’s too – whose love and devotion has been remarkable throughout – as well as the rest of our family and friends. In spite of the darkness of the original diagnosis, I feel that I have come through a tunnel and am optimistic about the future. Hopefully in time, I will lose the extra pounds I have gained around my waistline and the ‘chipmunk cheeks’ I have acquired from the medication I am taking!
God does indeed sometimes work in mysterious ways and on Christmas Eve, we were delighted and blessed to welcome the birth of our first granddaughter, Connie Lillian. Mother and baby are doing well and Deven, Charlotte’s husband, is steadily becoming accustomed to sleepless nights! We were similarly delighted to learn that Hannah and her husband Sean are expecting in July! How quickly things change. We are indeed very blessed.
I would like to end by saying that it is a joy and a privilege to serve at the Cathedral and herald the Good News of Jesus Christ in the world. Please keep me, Alix and all our family and friends in your prayers.
Deacon Nicholas
