Wednesday, December 03, 2003
time and chance happeneth to them all
My prospective waltz partner decided that for scheduling reasons he's quitting the team. Given the amount of course work I have right now, I'm entirely sympathetic, and maybe slightly relieved. I enjoy jive and cha cha more than waltz and quickstep anyway. It also probably serves me right for objectifying him on the internet.
In any case, it's not even a concern right now. My grandfather seems to be dying more quickly than the rest of us, and I'm feeling very far from home. When I left for London, I prepared myself for not seeing him again. Even then I knew that that sense of preparation was almost as false as denial would have been. My task list is long enough and my stress level high enough to keep sadness at bay, but just barely.
From a time and chance perspective, I'd say my grandfather did better than most. If he had been spared the vascular dementia it would have been better, obviously, but I'm happy he had 85 years of a mostly good life, 62 or 63 of them married to someone who adores him.
This is my Christmas wish list right now:
- that he's still alive when my mum gets back to Kelowna this afternoon, and also when my dad gets back in a week
- that my grandmother is as okay as she can be
- that my brother, who's flying home for Christmas before me, gets to see him again, and my cousins too
The sad truth is that crisis is a part of life that we can't always control, the part that causes us to change and, with any luck, learn.It was more comforting the last time I was in crisis than it is now. Such is life.
