A Full Moon and a Full Day

Isabel has been writing her "August letter" to friends and extended family. Her paragraph about last Saturday is a "keeper" for this week's blog update. The day was sunny with a soft breeze. The mosquitoes were nowhere to be found.

Here are Isabel's words typed on her word-pro:

"Another happy outing was July 24, when Rick and Catherine drove me to Garratts' cabin at Lake Katepwa, 60 miles from Regina for a Barnsley family gathering of more than 30 people. My girls and their families were there as well as my sister-in-law Gertie, nieces and nephews and their families, and cousins. It was a great time of visiting!

Our Abernethy Fair was the previous day, and everyone was full of tales about what a wonderful fair it was again. There were 76 horses competing and 109 exhibitors had 1300 exhibits in cooking, handwork, quilting, horticulture etc. The chocolate chip cookie class had 22 entries! The class I sponsor for youth ~ "a nutritious school lunch" ~ had 13 entries and I was happy that Mary got first and Josh second! I so enjoyed competing at the Fair for over 50 years, and I am pleased that my family including Catherine, Rick, Nancy, Bill, Megan, John, Mary and Josh all entered exhibits this year. This includes grains, flowers, and the pet show along with baking and many crafts, wild flower identification, and art work. It was the 103rd Abernethy Agricultural fair and in all those years, it has never been rained out! Amazing!!

On the trip to Lake Katepwa, it was good to see the crops and green countryside on this very rainy year in Saskatchewan. The ride and transfer went even better than last time!" (end of quote)

Four hours after our arrival at Katepwa, the moon accompanied us all the way home to Wascana.

"Home" is found in so many places these days.

With gratitude again and again.

A Walk in the Summer Sun

Isabel emailed us this past week that she had been walking outside on the sidewalk. Mum headed out into the sunshine accompanied by her new tall walker; Robin, her current Physiotherapist; and Karen, Mum's longtime PT Assistant who drove Rufus-the-Third. Rufus follows behind in case Isabel needs to ride. This was Mum's first walk outside in nearly three years.

How much the rest of us can take for granted!

Mum emailed us that Robin wanted her to experience walking on an uneven surface. This was a memorable day with the hot July sun on her back and the beautiful Wascana Park around her. Thank you again, creative caring therapists whose extra effort become something "to write home about".

Yes, this photo is of Wascana Park in the summer sunshine.

Hanging Out at the Shop

Given the choice between the shops of the mall and a farm shop on the prairie, there was no question. The farm shop, it was.

On a day that threatened thunderstorms yet again (!), Isabel's friend, Don, swept out his farm shop south of Regina in preparation for a visit from Isabel. We loaded up in a shower and drove in sun through green and flooded fields under blue sky and cloud. On arrival 20 minutes later, a look at the sky convinced us to move the picnic table under the trees in to the clean shop for an afternoon of visiting. (Yes, this lovely farmstead has a house, but Isabel has not yet mastered steps up and down).

The photo is significant. Isabel is enjoying a view of the farm and prairie from the shop with her wheels beside her. Mum is now able to travel short distances by car (rather than with Rufus - her power-chair and the van). Birdsong, a garden, old friends, family and friend accompaniment, story-telling and laughter were part of the afternoon.

We drove back to Wascana in showers and arrived with clear sky overhead as we unloaded.

Thank you, Joyce and Don, for helping dreams come true!

Happy Canada Day!

June has been a banner month for Isabel and we have much to celebrate.

Quality of life is not all about achievement or success, but Isabel's significant achievements of this past month have been a heartening experience for Mum and her family.

The achievements have included:

* Participation in the "Relay for Life"; and her grand-niece's wedding reception in Moose Jaw (see previous blog postings below)

* Learning to transfer from "Rufus", her wheelchair to the passenger seat of a car (Mum can stand up, step over, sit, and swing those long legs in to the car) YES! Our first outing was to see an old friend of Shorthorn Cattle business days who lives a few blocks away. The next day we drove around the Legislature Buildings and down side streets to view lovely gardens.

* Acquiring a new walker that draws more on her strength and stamina to propel herself forward. Mum can walk up a ramp and down the hall travelling many more feet than she has in the past. What a feat!

Gratitude ~ every day! We are thankful.

And now for July 1 ~Happy Canada Day everyone!

First Big Roadtrip!

June 26 was a special day. Isabel made her first trip of out of Regina in nearly three years. She and Rufus travelled on Saturday to the wedding reception of her grand-niece Amanda Froehlich and Dale Chow in Moose Jaw. Lots of careful planning went into this big adventure and the day was a great success all around. Mum was delighted to visit with over 30 members of her Robertson family who ranged in age from 8 to 91. A special surprise was the arrival of our Scottish cousin, James Clark, from Idaho. Faithful Russ the van-driver took a late evening nap while he waited for Isabel who stayed an extra hour than she had planned! She emailed her daughters the next day: "What a great day yesterday!! I am so glad I went. Everything went so well." Prior to the event, she reminded us of the family cake knife and serving knife that have been used at Robertson and Russell family weddings for decades.

As can be expected, Mum had lots to say about the wet fields between Regina and Moose Jaw. Her comment was: "I have seen them on TV, but you have to see it to believe it." Oh, how good to see the prairies and the horizon again.

Gratitude yet again for another wonderful day in Mum's life!

The Relay for Life

Three weeks of rain here on the prairies, and last Friday evening, Isabel and Rufus-the-Third ventured out to participate in Regina's Relay for Life. This year's theme was: Celebrate! Remember! Fight Back! Isabel and Rufus completed 1.5 laps as "Cancer Survivors" around the floral beds at the Saskatchewan Legislature Buildings. For anyone who knows those beds, think mud mud mud..... Mum was determined to" walk" (drive) the distance on her own without our help, and so she did in her yellow survivor t-shirt and rain poncho with a huge garbage bag to keep her feet and legs dry.

Following the 12 hour relay (7 pm to 7 am), Captain Nancy emailed her 12 team members including Isabel and Rufus:

"We, the Cancer Stompers, raised $2029. Way to go everyone! Every bit helps to bring HOPE to those in the cancer battle. The night was definitely a success, with $507,000 raised in Regina. There were 110 teams and 1060 participants. This is the largest amount raised ever in Regina, so the weather definitely didn't dampen the spirits of those that were there."

And at long last, the sun shone on Saturday.

On Resilience

I have been thinking a lot about the nature of resilience lately during this unseasonably wet May in Saskatchewan. Many parts of the province have received more rain than we normally do in a year. The seeding is nowhere near half-done; and the possibility of frost-free time to mature a crop lessens daily with each shower. Local radio and coffee-shop talk focuses on the weather, and the resilience that it takes to be hopeful patient farmers under these conditions.

As we consider resilience, we are reminded of the prairie crocus that blooms so early each spring. Often covered in snow and buffeted by wind, these harbingers of spring bloom again to remind us that the seasons eventually do roll around.

A colleague of mine writes: "Resilience is the ability to work with adversity in such a way that one comes through it unharmed or even better for the experience. Resilience means facing life's difficulties with courage and patience -- refusing to give up. It is the quality of character that allows a person or organization to rebound from misfortune, hardships and trauma."

This description describes Isabel as well as the crocus and prairie farmer (of which Isabel is definitely one!). During the last weeks, Mum has recovered from a couple of infections, and the treatment for them threw her digestive system out of whack. She has returned to her usual vibrant healthy self. In addition she has endured a sudden move across the hall. After over two years in a familiar room with her companion of early morning sun, she moved with a brief 30 minutes notice. (The move is part of the facility's policy on reducing contagious infection among residents.) Regardless of the good reason for the move, some of the familiarity of home and how one's TV, radio, and health equipment work in a certain room orientation were lost within one short hour.

Whereas many residents of longterm care have to deal with such upheaval and often the loss of familiar staff if they move units or facilities, Isabel moved just "across the hall" and is still near the sunny lounge and her terrace garden. However, we are still reminded of her incredible resilience of the last three years. Walking out of her home in Abernethy never to return again, loss of physical ability and many beloved aspects of family and community life, coming to terms with such a rare and unexpected health condition to name just a few.

Yet, she continues to be such a trooper. "You can't look back, you can only go forward", she reminds us, and onward she goes enjoying each day, exerting her best self at each therapy appointment, and delighting in the visitors and letters that come through the door. And although she has said good-bye to her beloved morning sun, she now has a west view and can see the weather rolling in. Her daily emails to her daughters start with a description of the weather.

The nature of resilience has a lot to do with emotional and mental survival or the psychological make-up that provides a phenomenal will to live in order to continue to eek out all there is of life and its goodness. Resilience is about a dogged determination to persevere and survive. You've got it, Mum!

With gratitude and awe, we feel this resilience every time we visit you or hear from you by email.

And now, onward to June and all its possibilities!

(With thanks to Linda Anderson for her words on resilience quoted above)