Life Lessons With Gramma C.

My husband has been doing some plumbing work to help install a friend’s shower. Since he isn’t a plumber by trade, things don’t always go as planned. The other day he was using a blowtorch and it backed up on him and started a fire. Not wanting to set our friend’s home blazing, he carried the blowtorch outside, badly burning his hand in the process.

We learn through our mistakes and my husband has learned to be extremely careful with fire. I don’t think he wants to be a plumber anymore either.

Holidays seem to be all about eating to a lot of people. I spent Christmas eve at my niece’s where we ate, visited, and ate some more.

Then boxing day, I went with my daughter and son-in-law to his aunt’s home. The family is Portuguese and they have eating down to a fine art. There is always so much food, dozens of people, and yet none of them is overweight. This I find hard to understand. They seem to eat constantly, but are all in great physical shape. Maybe it’s something in the home made wine?

I forgot to mention the rainbow. The day after Sara’s funeral was my grandaughter Kayla’s 15th birthday. We all went out onto the porch for a few minutes that morning and suddenly a rainbow appeared. It was not raining and the rainbow stretched from one end of their property to the other. It lasted for about 5 minutes and then disappeared.

Kayla declared “Sara sent me a rainbow for my birthday.”

Such simple faith was like healing ointment and that little miracle brightened the day for all of us.

It’s amazing how our lives can change from one minute to the next. Eight days ago I was living my routine life and doing all the routine things. Then I got a phone call from my daughter in Tennessee. In a soft, pathetic little voice, she whimpered “Sara’s gone.”

Sara is my grandson’s two-year-old, blonde and chatty, with the most amazing sky-blue eyes you ever saw. Since she is a typical, active toddler, my first thought was that she had wandered away. Through sobs, I heard that Sara had found her way into my daughter’s pool and drowned. She was missing for less than five minutes, opened a door she was never able to reach, walked across tall grass that before she had always insisted on being carried over, and managed to climb the steep stairs to the above ground pool. All of the impossible little details that changed her life and ours forever.

Our faith and strong family care helped us all through the days ahead. We hugged together, cried together, devoured pictures, and talked about all the good memories we still have. Of course, we would give anything to have Sara with us again, but we know that she is safe in the arms of Jesus and He will care for her much better than we ever could.

Goodbye, my dear Sara. Great-gramma loves you very much!

After waiting a few weeks for a hospital bed to become available, my aunt finally had surgery on the 15 pound tumor in her abdomen. Only the tumor was now 25 pounds and the added weight caused another organ to tear. So, of course, more surgery had to be performed. That was six weeks ago and the dear lady is still in hospital. In their haste to help her recovery, a lung was punctured, but hey, a woman in her 70’s can bounce right back, right?

Well, she did! It was touch and go for a while there, but Aunt T. is finally on the mend. Another few weeks and they might even send her to rehab. This is when we really appreciate our ‘free’ medical care, otherwise we would have to pay for the hospital errors out of our own pocket!

Lately, our family have been experiencing first-hand, our “wonderful” health care system here in Canada. For those of you in less fortunate countries, we have free public health care - which means we don’t pay when we see the doctor or need hospital care (unless we want upgraded facilities, like a semi-private room). We are heavily taxed for this privilege, mind you, and have the idea that when we do need health care, it will be there for us.

Well, now my aunt needs health care. She is elderly and has a 15 pound tumour in her stomach. Once the doctors established that the tumour was benign, I guess she went down on the priority pole. After being admitted for surgery a few weeks ago (at a highly regarded hospital here in Toronto), she spent the next four hours waiting in a cubicle in a hard wheelchair. Next, she was discharged and sent home because there were no beds.

The following week, my aunt was admitted again and after a few hours had her intravenous inserted - a good sign, or so we thought. This time she stayed for an extra couple of hours and was then told that the doctor was still busy with someone else, so she would be discharged again. Although she did have the option of waiting until midnight when her then exhausted surgeon would be able to operate. Oh, but there were no beds again, so that wouldn’t be a good choice either.

So after many tears, my thoroughly frustrated aunt took yet another trip back to her home on the other side of the city. The hospital staff assured her that the surgery might be possible in July, so in the meantime she can hire someone to stay with her and use her walker to get around.

If anyone were to ask me right now, the option of private care is looking pretty good. Like the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”.

Hard to believe it has been almost a month since I last posted. When I was in Sudbury, I felt so healthy and even though it was cold, I went for long walks almost every day. Since it was not a damp cold like Toronto is, the weather did not seem bad at all.

Anyway, ever since I got back home, I have not felt very well. I seem to have problems breathing, a sore throat and a constant dry cough. To make matters worse, my husband had varnished our hardwood floors while I was away, so that smell took a long time to get out of the house. The doctor sent me for a chest x-ray, which was fine, and thinks my problem is likely allergy related.

I read an article on the Internet about the effects of black mold and wondered if that was half my problem. We had a small amount on our bathroom ceiling, but after cleaning it, I started acting like a mad woman and checking every corner of the house. Turns out there was mold behind a dresser in my bedroom and some under the basement carpet and in the cold cellar.

Even my large plant, which I really like, seems to have yellow fungus on the soil. I hate to throw it out, so will first try to change the soil and see what happens.

I have been suffering from FFD lately. Short for Fat Frump Days and made worse by shopping with a size 4 daughter (even though she has a baby) in a clothing store whose large sizes are equivelant to a small in most stores. After trying on five things and barely managing to squeeze out of them, I felt like a poster child for the before pictures in the diet commercials. But I found a way to feel slim again. Instead of getting my real size in one of those teeny size shops, I got a bigger size in a regular store. Then the clothes were hanging off of me, they were so huge. True, I left without purchasing anything, same as the other store, but I felt wonderful about it.

I just spent my evening reading this wonderful blog written by a guy named Kenny. He is 25 years old and as a result of a skiing accident, is now a quadriplegic. His writing is witty, sensitive, and very well done. Click this link and see for yourself.
typical guy, atypical situation

Well, I’ve taken three days off work now and am just enjoying some down time. I have fibromyalgia and have been so busy for the past weeks that my system doesn’t want to go anymore than a crawl right now. I don’t get paid when I’m off sick, so they don’t mind me not coming in.

I read some good articles that will be helpful for my motivatedtolearn subscribers and am going through my files as well. These slow days are great for doing the little organizing jobs that are necessary but hard to find time for. So I’ll settle down with my cup of tea and see what treasures I find in my paper pile.