Thank you very much for the birthday greetings. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that I’ve survived so long, but it does seem to be a reality, not a figment of my imagination.
We had an impromptu celebratory dinner 2 days before my 90th birthday, when David was in Ottawa, testifying to a senate committee, and another on my actual birthday, when we were joined by my youngest grandson, John Last junior, a very interesting young man, and his lady love, Emily Beresford. A third party had to be cancelled when the hostess’s Mum, aged 96, had a bad turn(she’s OK now, I’m happy to report). Two parties were at least one more than I deserved!
I’m in good condition. I gave up driving a few months ago, on the principle of ‘quit while ahead’ — i.e. before I harmed others and myself, by driving with impaired judgement, as tell-tale dents and scratches on my car’s body-work revealed. I rely on family and a weekly ‘personal care worker’ to ferry me hither and yon, and this is working well. Otherwise, no serious complaints. If I develop any distressing irreversible ailments, it’s comforting to know we have a system in place in this enlightened country of Canada now, akin to those of Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. But I hope I won’t ever have to make use of this, that a gentle, natural exit from this life awaits me at some future unspecified time. Meantime, I’ll soldier on, or plod on, making the best of things as I cope with a dozen or more chronic disabilities, all minor and endurable.
Two bits of unfinished business are to lick my memoirs into publishable shape, and to find an illustrator and publisher for my story for children. The memoirs run to about 130K words, and need to be cut to about 80K. I summarized them in a post on my blog, on June 11. I have indeed had a very interesting, worthwhile life, much of it shared with my beloved Janet Wendy, whom I miss more than words can express. She plays a prominent part in my memoirs, which gives me a powerful incentive to lick them into shape and publish them.
There's much more I could add, but the above summary covers all that matters.
No comments:
Post a Comment