This Might Explain Why It Has Been So Long Since I last Posted Anything!

It was a beautiful day on Saturday when the family of my children's father bid him farewell. RIP Gordon. The three adult children, the first two mine, the third Joanne's, were all amazing. Their father would have been so proud. Perhaps surprising for a writer, I have very few words. Just a succession of images -miso soup, seeing a childhood friend in the church, a photo of Gord as a child, blue skies when rain and thunder were forecast, vignettes of people. As a series of disparate paintings I sometimes have pass inadvertently before my eyes that I have never tried to put into words, these images are beautiful. It was a very moving day when all the children and many relatives gathered around their father, uncle (Leslie, Michael, Susan)...(it was a shock to have a woman greet me warmly as Aunt Mary Lou and to have no idea who she was. Soon became clear!) with much insight, sharing and love. Phil arrived in Montreal from Germany the evening before, put his family in a taxi (his 15 month old son very upset and baffled) to their home in Montreal and flew onto downtown Toronto.(He will be happy to be home again). He appeared in his most casual attire (another image), was a pall bearer and spoke very movingly. My older grandson was also a pall bearer. My son in law spoke and then my son did, both with much insight into a complex man and father they brought once more to life in their words, and with contrasting style and content, the two men were the central and focal and unusual part of a very traditional Anglican service that, at Gord's request, his younger (half Jewish) daughter, Thea, had arranged. Andrea, my daughter, was there, often long distance, helping her out at every step and she wrote the lovely obit that appeared in the Globe and the Star. A procession right to graveside after the service. A gathering afterwards at a home in North Toronto. Joanne and I were so very proud of all three children.

The fatigue in the aftermath of the pneumonia lessens so very gradually, but each day is slightly better than the one before. I have not yet made the decision about going to Vancouver, but I did ask the publicist to cancel the one reading the publisher had arranged, a nice one, too , at a library I have been to in North Vancouver. It did not seem fair to keep them on hold or to have to cancel at the last minute. It would have been just a bit too much pressure for me right now, too. I will see the doctor tomorrow to ask some questions, as I am still really tired and sometimes a bit shaky. Even so it feels as if the trajectory is in a positive direction. And I do have a suitcase out!