Thanks-giving

This past week marked the Thanks-giving holiday in Canada. Gratitude for harvest (much still in the field!); sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends; giving public and private Thanks in a variety of ways.

On Thanksgiving Sunday, I was in the Scottish Highlands down a long glen (mountain valley) at the end of a sea-loch (lake) having tea with an acquaintance of Isabel's. At 91, Margaret is the retired housekeeper and cook for the mother of our Blakeney cousins. (Cousin Joy Blakeney has visited Canada several times in the last few years and was significant in helping Isabel ease into her move to Wascana).

In a small cottage in front of a cozy fire with a table laden with tea and five kinds of "sweets", Margaret showed us her collection of Isabel's letters from the last three years. We talked of ability and disability and Margaret's life-long hearing impairment. For most decades of her life, she could not use a telephone. With thanks to the newest technology in adapted phones, she can now call from her small isolated mountain village to all her friends and family. We spoke of Isabel's adapted computer and word processor and what that has meant for communication in Isabel's life.

Mum receives her nutrition by food-peg (her throat muscles aren't yet working properly) so there was no turkey or pumpkin pie on her Thanksgiving menu. "And no dishes to do!", says Isabel. But there was a "full meal" which she receives four times a day that provides her with excellent nutrition and energy. And there are friends and family galore that write, and visit and phone and care from all around the world. For this, there is much Thanksgiving.

During the shortening autumn days of the last few weeks, Mum has said a last good-bye to several friends and neighbours. In the midst of sadness and loss, there is much Thanksgiving for years of friendship, neighbourly support, and community service.

With gratitude again and again.