May 7th – Part I
Received a call from Natalie on Monday, which answered a lot of questions for Nat. He had been trying to call Jenny at home several times but no answer and was starting to get a little worried. He kind of thought she might be back in hospital so decided to leave it for a few more days. Still a bit worried, he decided to leave a message for Natalie (Nat’s nephew’s wife who was taking care of what was going on with Jenny and was always our contact for any and all updates on Jenny’s health). She called back this past Monday while Nat was playing golf with his buddies, which he’s not been able to do lately because of the crappy weather. Once I picked up the receiver and saw the number on Call Display, I knew it was Natalie. She told me Jenny was back in hospital and not expected to come out. Along with the progression of her cancer and infection, she had fallen again. The cancer had now spread from her lungs to liver and she was disoriented and confused. My heart sank. Somehow I wished Nat had been home to take the call. The tears began to swell. I so hoped this moment would never come and as I tried to listen to Natalie my hands were shaking as I took down notes for me to remember to tell Nat when he arrived home.
As Natalie had mentioned that Jenny would love to see us, we now had a dilemma. Do we go now or try and wait? Not having seen Jenny in so long, we were thinking positive that she would hold on for a while. But it soon became a no brainer to see her while she’s still alive. I knew Nat would have regretted waiting and end up going to her funeral instead. We then made a mad dash to make flight decisions – what day to leave, how long to stay, search for flights to Newcastle (which do not have direct flights to and we would have to fly on some other airlines with some with connections (London. Amsterdam, Dublin, etc.)
After doing research on the travel sites, I was totally confused. Too much information and difficult for this aging brain to comprehend. So it now became another no brainer that we head to CAA to find us something. That same day Nat had an appointment in Stoney Creek – was gone for about 1-1/2 hours, then had to return home so I could jump in the car for lunch with Michele in St. Catharines. This was one of those times I wished we had two vehicles, but alas the expense isn’t justified. Poor Michele, she got hit hard with my bitching on personal matters, and as I was also a bit hyper, I probably talked in bits and bytes and along with memory lapses of remembering words, I probably sounded like a crackly Ham Radio Operator. I love her for listening to me. I then drove home to pick up Nat to drive back to Niagara Falls and CAA. Sitting down with the agent and after several tries, she soon found good deal with British Airways with a stopover in London, leaving in 2 days!! She also arranged with Niagara Airbus as our transport to the airport. It took us back a bit about the price of flights today, but again no complaints, as this may be our last time going back to Britain.
We returned home to plan the packing and cancel some appointments for while we were gone. Nat then called Natalie to let her know the details of our trip so she could arrange for someone to pick us up once we arrived at Newcastle airport.
I then spent Wednesday getting packed and organized, setting up finances, organizing medications for the two of us and rebooking dental and medical appointments. I was proud of myself that I was able to pack lightly. We both did not want to be burdened with carrying more than we needed, as this was not going to be a holiday. Nat is always good in what he takes, but I always think of every variation where I might need this or that (just in case), including any make-up (but another no brainer, as I’m now a senior and can just go bare faced). With one bag for checking-in, one carry-on and my travel tote loaded with money, travel info, passports and iPad (won’t go anywhere without), we were good to go and ready to leave on Thursday afternoon. I truly was proud of my packing – not even an extra pair of shoes which is unheard of for me!!!
Once Nat returned home from his game, we were enjoying supper and decided to put on the air conditioner, as we were both getting a little warm. Then later that evening the air was running for quite some time but not cooling down the house. We really didn’t have any bloody time for the air-conditioner to break down at this moment in time. Before getting too panicky, Nat had decided to check things out and it was discovered the air conditioner breaker was off. Thank God. Nat figures it got flipped to the off position when we had some workers in the house and had to use the fuse box. Whew!!!!
Off to bed with our minds whirling and wondering about the days ahead.
…. to be continued ….