The last post I made was in 2015 when I referred anyone interested to take a look at my original blog to see what had happened and why I returned to the UK.
I now feel up to writing here on my Living In Mallorca blog as to why I left the island that I love and the place that I had intended to call my forever home. I felt it only fair to give an explanation here for if anyone had bothered to read my blog from start to finish they deserved to understand my change of heart.
In 2012, 2013 and about half of 2014 I loved my new life in Mallorca. I had arranged everything to get us settled into the island we had loved since my first visit in 1987. We had residencia, we had bought a house and everything else that goes along with relocating to another country. Ok it hadn’t been easy arranging everything but it had finally been done and we were part and parcel of the island. We had even given a home to a little Spanish rescue dog and after a brief visit to the UK in early 2013 I had returned happily to our island.
So what went wrong?
It has taken me all this time to try and understand why I had such an overwhelming need to return, as soon as I possibly could, to a country I had decided to leave. In hindsight (such a wonderful thing) I can now finally understand.
Since leaving the island I had refused to face up to the reasoning as to why and told everyone that it was family that drew me back but that was only true up to a point.
Prior to leaving England in November 2012 I had all my usual health checks. I was not too concerned as my final cervical smear test was clear as was breast screening. I had gone through the menopause so didn’t think that there would be anything to concern me now.
While in Mallorca I had registered with a doctor and had (as my followers will know) needed to have a cataract operation. The operation itself and the hospital and surgeon were brilliant. However the dealings I had with my registered doctor to get the referral were not too good at all.
Now I admit it was up to me to speak Spanish and I had been learning it as much as I could but my vocabulary did not extend very well to hospital or medical terminology!
The doctor was not interested in even attempting to talk to me (luckily my neighbour came with me) and I have to admit that I would not have rushed back to see her in a hurry! I felt that I was just an annoyance and another foreigner to her.
Now the reason for explaining that is because this overwhelming urgency fell upon me where I just ‘needed desperately’ to get back to the UK. I didn’t understand it at all but just knew I had to get back. I blamed everything for the reason but in reality I didn’t know why.
Anyway to cut this story short once back in the UK it was discovered that I had cancer cells in my womb which resulted in a total hysterectomy. Luckily enough they were all contained within the womb and I now just have to go for six monthly hospital check ups.
Now I only tell you this because although I miss Mallorca terribly and at times wish I was back there living our dream I know that returning to the UK saved my life.
Since then I have met and heard of others that were not so fortunate as me and had lost their lives because it was not discovered early enough. If I had been in Mallorca I would not have been having smear tests and I would not have mentioned anything to the doctor so although I did not know why at the time – it was necessary for me to get back to the UK.
I will always love Mallorca, and the people there, and many times I will feel homesick for the island I wanted to call home, but whatever lead me to dash back to the UK I can only say thank you for giving me the future I may not have had.
Living in Mallorca was my dream – was a reality for a short while – but could have ended in a nightmare.
Adios y hasta luego!
Living In Mallorca 