Nothing significant happened on the house because this past weekend was my father’s 80th birthday in Victoria and we used it as an excuse to have a family get together. It didn’t take much prompting to get family here from Ontario and Alberta and i think everyone has been waiting for an excuse to travel. Not all of the elders are healthy and there is the feeling that this might be the last time everyone of my father’s generation gets together. The fourth wave is in full swing but we are all double vaccinated so we took the chance. We had to keep masks on except while eating in the common room of dad’s complex where we held the event but that didn’t stop the conversation from flowing and it was great to reconnect with the family.
It was great to see the lift it gave my father. People started arriving Wednesday and dad was able to take my cousin and his partner around Hatley Castle where he went to Royal Roads and where he courted my mother. Mum and Dad had their first kiss in the Japanese Garden there. My grandmother was a friend of the commander at Roads and my mum has told me stories about playing in the gardens there as a child too. Lots of family history and memories there and i am glad that dad had a new audience to share them with.
It was also lovely to watch and listen to the connections. I probably learned more about my Uncle Harry on the weekend than i ever have before. The group would meet for breakfast at a cafe near my fathers place, eat, drink coffee, play musical chairs, have lunch, then walk over to the local pub where they stayed for the afternoon before going to dinner and never stopped talking. It was lovely.
I also got to connect with my mother’s sister Edith and my Uncle Vic. Aunt Edith lost her husband, my Uncle Chris, 10 days after mum died and then Aunt Marg, mum’s older sister and Vic’s wife died a few months later. It was really awful losing so many family members in such short a time and not being able to be together because of COVID. It was nice to be able to take a few moments together for the first time since mum’s socially distanced funeral last year. I think it is sad that we eulogize the dead and they don’t get to hear it. We need to remember to tell those that we love how important they are and the impact they have had on our lives while they are still alive.
I only took one photo the whole night of Dad cutting his cake.
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