Updated at last.
8:03 p.m.
After Newfoundland, Little Princess and I stopped in T.O. to visit with my mom for four days and for me to clean the stuff out of the neewall my dad had shoved in there years ago and for her to find a place to live. It turned out to be very hectic and uncomfortable. My big brother was still there, sleeping in my old bedroom and Frank was upstairs in his bed. His teenaged daughter came to visit that week and she slept in the other bed upstairs in what used to be a kitchen (and still is in a pinch), so Little Princess and I were relegated to sleeping on my mom’s couches, which are really love seats. There were only two positions I found comfortable: on my left side curled up like a fœtus, and on my back with my legs crossed half-lotus style. My chronically stiff neck was worse than ever, and my thighs were actually sore as though I had been working out from my nocturnal immobility.
I was successful in clearing out my old junk. I found high school yearbooks, textbooks from the anthropology course I took in 1977, text books and notebooks from the legal secretarial course I took in 1975, and a box of drawings and poetry and other memorabilia dating from high school and before. There were also boxes of stuff my dad had been working on, all of which ended up in the recycle bin. It seemed like such a waste, but my brother and I couldn’t think of anyone who would be interested in this stuff. So out it went.
I also found bags of garbage, actual garbage. My father had saved styrofoam coffee cups, styrofoam packing material, aluminum pie plates, string. There were old couch cushions up there and furniture stashed away. But I did find one treasure, a windup record player which really belongs in a museum.
Little Princess was also successful in finding an apartment. It is not far from where my mother presently lives, and is only a 10-minute walk from the home she is moving into. There is a bus stop right outside the door that takes her to the subway headed to the university, or if she is feeling energetic she is another 10-minute walk from a subway station on the same line. The rent is a little more than she’d hoped to pay, but everything is included except for phone and cable, it’s clean, well maintained, convenient, and even though it faces a very busy main street, her view is at the back of the building overlooking a neighbouring backyard on a one-way street with very little traffic. It really is ideal.
My big brother took me to the home my mother is going to and it’s really lovely. It is so nice, in fact, that I wouldn’t mind living there myself, and I am greatly relieved. She’s getting an actual one-bedroom apartment with a small kitchen (no stove, but there’s a fridge and she can bring a microwave oven and toaster oven, etc.), a sizable living room and a big bathroom with a walk-in shower. Everything else about the residence is wonderful as well. There is a main dining room and a private dining room, library, games room, gym, lounges on each floor, and an area where entertainment happens. There is a beauty salon and even a small convenience store. It’s perfect.
My mother, unfortunately, keeps losing more and more of her memory. Even though she was the one who originally wanted to go to this place, she now claims that people are making arrangements behind her back and that she’s never been there. In fact, my brothers both took her and the older one showed her photographs of herself in the very room she will be renting. It pains me terribly to see her deteriorating as she is, and it makes me very tense and stressed out, so that I tend to snap and be short with her.
Little Princess and I took the midnight bus back to L’ville so that we arrived home on Saturday, July 19. Buddy Boy came home on the next Wednesday, and then the four of us plus Little Princess’ BF drove back to Ontario on Friday for the annual July family reunion of my husband’s family.
Once more I had less than optimal sleeping conditions. Buddy Boy slept on a living room couch (full length), and the two other kids camped in the backyard. Hubby and I were in the small bedroom on the daybed, my side of which is on a slight incline, which meant I had to keep from rolling into him all night long. He offered to switch, but that only meant that he would be rolling into me, so I declined.
The party at my brother-in-law’s was fun, as always. His band played in the backyard and in order not to upset the neighbours, he invited them all. So I got to meet some very nice people who were not family. I also watched as many of them, family included, got pissed drunk. It stopped being funny after I sobered up, being the designated driver. We spent Sunday relaxing. I started a knitting project which kept me occupied.
We stopped on the way back to visit with my mother again, taking her out to lunch. It was a mercifully short visit, but Little Princess and her BF were able to sign their lease and give the last month’s rent deposit. I drove the first leg home, spending most of the first hour stuck in traffic as two lanes were closed due to a tractor-trailer having rammed into the median. Hubby drove all the rest of the way (six hours) and we contended with one storm system after another. One was literally directly upon us, and it seemed that lightning was striking just metres away from the automobile. Scary stuff.
But we made it and today was mostly sunny, allowing me to hang laundry. Now I have to go get some groceries while the store is still open, and Little Princess is begging a ride into town. I guess updating wasn’t so painful after all.
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