The West Commences: Mom gets out

Tomorrow mom will get out of the hospital. It will be Friday, February 13, 2015. I’ve never worried much about that day and date combination, black cats crossing my path and mirrors breaking, but I’m a bit dubious at the moment. She’s certainly cured of all infection and too agile to spend time in the physiotherapy ward, but she’s still tired, breathless at times, suffering from the pain of PHN and subject to her usual mood swings, amplified by grieving. All of this bodes ill for a successful launch back into life at Shannon Oaks. Oh well, it’s going to happen. I prepared her clothes tonight, and Bill went to visit her. Tomorrow we will pick her up around 10:00am. The plan is to have dinner together in her place tomorrow. Bill will spend the night with her there and then leave Saturday morning. I will carry on here, probably until the end of the month. I hope to leave then to return to Vernon and prepare to go to Mexico. Bill will answer the call, if there is one, while I’m away and then we’ll see what happens next.

Bill and I have worked well together, trying to settle all the business matters for mom. She will find something to worry about no matter what we do, but at least we will be able to tell her to be calm, confident in the knowledge that we may not have everything in final shape but we are well on the way and have done what can be done for the moment. In this connection, Barbara made a big contribution. We were about to drive to Duncan because we had been told that there was no Service BC office in Victoria, and there isn’t. But we were too wound up to question the idiocy of every Victoria resident with such business to conduct driving all the way to Duncan, she wasn’t. She searched the various offices on line, separately. Service Canada handles CPP in Victoria from a wonderfully central location at the corner of Johnson and Douglas Streets, for example. We did everything without leaving town.

Bill is constitutionally incapable of letting situations drag into the mundane, so we have had some good times and got to appreciate each other more (at least I have him) during this period of family crisis. We have had some fun. One day we took a break and drove to Port Alberni, a rather long drive. We went for a walk in nearby Cathedral Grove. The rain forest was so wet that the paths were impassable at points. They are made of well-trampled crushed rock, and consequently, the water stays on top, so we often walked on the porous sides of the trails. Some parts were completely impassable. But we enjoyed ourselves just because we were outside and away from it all. We have also had some good pub lunches. He has introduced me to Grimbergen beer, a Belgian beer that is dark in color but light in flavor, and to excellent cob salads. The best was at the Beach House Restaurant on Cordova Bay Road in Victoria. It had crunchy romaine lettuce tossed in a light dressing, ripe avocado, tomato, grilled chicken strips, two rashers of perfectly crisp maple bacon and many chunks of blue cheese.

We’ll see what tomorrow holds.