Another weekend off from the demo saw us heading to Victoria for my Aunt Marg’s memorial service. COVID finally eased off enough that the borders are open so my cousin Marc and family could attend over the US Thanksgiving weekend.
2020 was a brutal year for the Nixon girls as we like to call my mum and her two sisters. My Granny Nora was a war widow and raised three pretty spirited women and made sure that they all stayed in touch when they started families. My uncle was a diplomat and lived overseas but had Victoria listed as his place of ordinary residence so that twice a year the government would fly him and his family home. Invariably this meant that we made the trip as well and i have many happy memories of Christmas’s in the dining room with her snowy centre piece made with Ivory soap flakes. Summers were at the local beaches building rafts with the cousins or playing in her big yard. Those were good years and all of us grandchildren have fond memories together.
In 2020 though we were all separated by quarantines and mild hysteria during the first wave of COVID. First my mother passed in April, then about 10 days later her sister Edith’s husband, my Uncle Chris died. 6 months later the oldest sister, my Aunt Marg passed as well. None of them had COVID but COVID made the timing so much worse. Everything was on lockdown so we all had to go through our own struggles in our little family bubbles. This is not what any of us wanted and i think how different it all would have been without the pandemic.
My mother’s internment was on a rainy day in the fall of 2020. COVID meant it was a small affair of about a dozen family outside and we all had to stand 6 feet apart masked and alone. It was rough. My uncle didn’t want anything special and his family sprinkled his ashes together as per his wishes. This made my Aunt’s memorial all the more meaningful. It was the first time we had all been together in years and we all really needed it. The service was lovely and we gathered afterwards for some food and drink and a good catch up. It was great to see everyone.
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