Mother's Day 2011

 
A bittersweet day. It started sweet enough, with me visiting my second Mother, a lovely lady of the Forsythe clan. I got my usual hugs and dropped off some chocolates. I had the good fortune to see the grandkids and their mom who was looking most lovely, although claiming to be harried and with those two fiery-headed toe-rags, I doubt it not a whit.

Then it was some shopping and out to the country to see my own Mother. A delivery of chocolate gingers went over well.

I was then tasked to look at Dad's new TV, which I had bought him for Christmas, to see why some of the Bell channels were not showing up. Apparently a call to Bell is required.

And the it was a recovery operation - a number of sheets of steel, stray bits of light box frame steel and a bunch of lumber and sundry bits and pieces had been picked up by the win and lobbed down a 60 degree inclined behind the garage. One piece of steel covered 16 m (I paced it out) from the woodpile to its resting pile amid the furrows of the neighbours field.

Recovery included restacking and rebuilding our lumber pile. covering it all with the steel, ballasting that against the wind, getting out the riding mower and storing the snowblower, and then heading inside to cook dinner.

Two hours of cooking later, I had a dinner of lemon herb pacific salmon, acorn squash steam-baked and then broiled with orange marmalade and butter, a stir fry (of tomatos, red onion, orange and yellow peppers, shallots, mushrooms, white wine, cider vinegar, a lot of garlic and some pepper), some mixed basmati and long grain rice, some wine, some cooked shrimp as an appetizer, and a lemon creme/pudding tart for desert. It all turned out quite tasty, although I forgot the broccoli and the two types of zucchini I got for the stir fry (oh well).

Then it was kitchen police duty and packing to return home. All in all, fairly sweet.

The bittersweet comes from knowing my Cousin's wife Linda is just getting over gall bladder surgery while her son is in the ICU in Minnesota or Wisconsin awaiting a heart and liver double transplant while knowing the insurance will only cover one transplant and the bill will likely be $1.2 million dollars. That itself might be a death sentence for her son, who at 28 is far to young to have to face this, especially with an 8-month pregnant wife. The financial situation is unbelievable enough that even a pocket book emptying won't be enough. They've done funraisers etc. and have raised $36K, but that's a drop in a $1.2M bucket. Not exactly a good situation for mother's day and hence the bittersweet aspect.

I'm luck to have my mom and I guess she's lucky to have me. I feel for my cousin's wife and her son... no parent should have to face outliving their child.