The time has flickered off so rapidly for the last several weeks that I m just now stopping to catch my breath. I ve briefly slipped in to SoulCast now and then and read a few posts but have held back on commenting. I apologize if any of you thought I was ignoring you. Thats not the case at all. Life has been a little full since my last post. I ll try to briefly summerize a few events and happenings.
Busy began when my middle daughter decided to make a trip home to help with shutting down my mothers house. She packed boxes like a fiend and scrubbed the bathroom till it was gleaming. That was no small feat! It looked as if it hadnt had a thorough cleaning in a decade. We spent two days sorting, packing and cleaning with a few hours break to visit mom at the Extendacare. The visits were great even though my step-father was exceedingly grumpy. This shouldnt surprise me thats his usual mood when I m around. The eight or so hours Shawndra and I had while driving to and from were a rare treat. We never get to spend time alone together. We were considering how many words per kilometer we were getting. Lots of reminiscing and lots of sharing of family mysteries.
Speaking of family mysteries, the Family Fable (otherwise known as geneology) has been returned from the printers. Its loaded with pictures from the last 300 or so years. Two huge volumes packed with data and details. Some surprises popped out. My favorite is that we had ancestors who lived at Greystoke, the fabled home of Tarzan. An excellent overview of family past and present thanks to the devoted labor of our dear cousin Marilyn. Fortunately Marilyn had the forsight to produce the book both in hard copy and in CD form. Each of my children received the Cd for Christmas.
Back to whats happening with mom. Physically she is doing pretty well. She says the hip she had replaced several years ago is causing her a bit of periodic pain. We spent the better part of an afternoon with an Optometrist who is concerned about some macular degeneration and the formation of cataracts. The prognosis for the time being would seem to advise holding off on surgery. She has been fitted with new glasses with a special coating to reduce the glare from the lighting in the home.
Her physician has declared her incompetent to handle her own affairs due to the onset of early stage alzheimers and mild dementia. She is still very lucid most of the time, recognizes everyone and has a fairly clear view of past events but is quite dim on present events. Short term memory loss is pretty evident but it is inconsistent. She has days that she is totally normal and others when she is unsure of what is going on around her. Over all she is doing well as can be expected considering her 94 years.
Next my eldest daughter, Shareen, made a trip home to repeat the excercise we went through with Shawndra. Again we spent a couple days at packing, cleaning and sorting. Another good seven or eight hours in transit allowed us a good visit. Unfortunately a lot of our conversation was around her marital issues. I m not going to go into them in any depth here but I will say she is contemplating what her next move should be. Together as a family we are keeping a close eye on her welfare as we are concerned for her and her children.
Those little things sojourns were also enhanced by the Arrival of Elizabeth VI. That is Elizabeth the 6th grandchild. Already two months old with long dark hair and an attitude. I m particularly delighted with her arrival because she is the only of my grandchildren to live in the same city. We ll have a great time together terrorizing her parents!
Christmas Eve was held at my home. The meal was terrific with lots of traditional Scandanavian foods.....Lutefisk, lefsa and krumake were the highlights beside the long simmered cinnamon seasoned rice porridge. Sophie V was the highlight at 13 months of age. She fell madly and mutually in love with Biscuit the elder of my two Shih Tzu. The spent a great deal of time kissing and toddling around the house together. Six year old Linnea IV was a charmer as she passed out all the gifts and displaying her ability to correctly read everyones' name.
Christmas Day at daughter Erins' house was terrific. Grandpa needs to take up jogging now because the seasons' goodies have settled dramatically at his waist line. Two of the little ones helped with exercise program by taking Grandpa swimming at the wave pool on Boxing Day. A little bit of travel concern came up when Shawndras' family was travelling through the mountains. They were delayed overnight at the summit of the Rocky Mountains due to the weather conditions. Fortunately they were able to find safe and comfortable accomodation and continued the trip the next day without incident.
At 2 am on Dec. 30th a sad moment fell. My Aunt Florence (moms 88 year old sister) died. Her husband and her children were with her and she went very peacefully. Yesterday evening at the viewing my Uncle, who is pretty slow moving and dealing with a fair dose of Alzheimers himself let me hug him and express my sorrow. He said: "She gave me 63 wonderful years!" This morning we watched him inch his way across the snowy grass to her graveside. All her children, all her neices and nephews and her youngest sister were there to see her off. We stood together as a family and talked and sang her favorite hymns while her great nephew officiated at her burial.
This afternoon the church was overflowing with friends and family. She touched many lives with her loving ways, her open home and her open heart. Later we renewed many old acquaintances and shared our updates with each other. Elizabeth VI was present and was the star of the after gathering with all the family members greating her and wanting to carry her around and cuddle her. She seemed to love the attention. This was her first public outing. We pressed a rose for her memory book and another for her great grandmother.
So...........as you can see all has not been quite.
I hope each of you have had a warm and wonderous Christmas season and that the New Year will bring you every imaginable blessing.
Botoni
