Not to be confused with poetry and storybook fantasy about Santa Claus and elven folk, I simply wanted to catch your attention for a miniscule and let you know about my day yesterday.
Wanting to get a hat done by today for my Grandson (didn't happen). Not that I didn't have time to knit it, but the light was bad, and I had somebody with me talking, and it's difficult enough to do intarsia ALONE--you have to count. You have to concentrate. It's not easy for me at all...
And so that hat isn't done--only started, and I feel bad about that, because we were supposed to have Christmas today...
Except no one is in the Christmas spirit. None of us.
My family would just as soon forget Christmas due to lack of money. Understandable. But cant' you have Christmas Spirit without money?
I digress..
Believe it or not, Jeff's daughter called him in a panic. Jeff's ex-mother in law was in the hospital, probably brain dead, and her mother had flown to Florida for a vacation. I can hear it now...
"Dad, can you come be with me?"
Tears. More tears.
Dad, of course, accepted.
And I came along. We brought our medications. I brought my knitting thinking..oh, sure, I'll get some done!" NOT!
Once we got there, which was a treacherous drive to begin with, she begged him to go with her to pick up her mother (Jeff's ex) at the airport so that she didn't have to take a bus back to Jackson--
And while they are chatting, I find out that her aunt went to Florida with her mother and was with her...so there would be no room for me in the vehicle, and I would have to stay at the hospital with someone I didn't even know.
What?
Well, Jeff, being an understanding father, accepted, and so I was left to stay with a stranger who likely would never wake up again--but what if she did to find a stranger in her hospital room? Nah--never happen. But the room was not lit well, and so knitting was not an option.
And of course, the weather was bad, so I worried about them driving to Detroit and back. Within about a half hour, my sister-in-law showed up and we sat together talking about it. When 5:00pm rolled around, I decided that I needed something to eat, and since I'd left my purse in the car, my sister-in-law offered to buy me dinner. We ate, and returned back to the room to find that other strangers (to me, but not to my sister-in-law) had shown up. These were--okay, let's confuse those already in that state of mind just a little more to stir the pot--my step-daughter's aunt on her mother's side...and her boyfriend.
So my sister-in-law and I left for the waiting room/family room--even though we weren't family--to let "family" have time with their mother, lying in the hospital bed.
J and I watched a few hours of television, talked about the situation, decided that we'd drive over to Jeff's mother's house for a break from driving in this wicked weather. Shortly, Jeff showed up wth his ex-wife, daughter and ex-sister-in-law. The family went to the hospital room and Jeff stayed with us in the family waiting room, he seemed to be glad to be off the roadway, but we had to get going, as the weather was to turn VERY nasty as night wore on, and I'd left my knitting in the hospital room--so off I went to the room to get my knitting, coat, hat and scarf--
When I walked in the room, there was Jeff's ex, trying to keep from crying in front of the rest of the family, and I had to pass her to get to my stuff.
Well, what could I do--none of them were being particularly huggy, and wow...she looked like she needed one...
So I gave her this big, heartfelt hug, and told her I was so sorry, and how this was such a lousy time for all this stuff to be happening, and blessed her with a little prayer silently, pulled her away so she could tear up some more, and hugged her again.
Then I grabbed my stuff and got out of there. Oh, and I hugged my step-daughter too.
And then we made the arduous trek over to Jeff's parent's house, stopped and dropped off the knitted hats and had fun trying them on, put the hairy red hat on dad, and shortly after, we left.
Again...
To fend for ourselves in the snowy weather.
Which turned to sleet south of Lansing. Which turned to rain north of Lansing, and then back to snow when we got to our road.
We couldn't drive into the driveway...so Jeff had to get out the snowblower at 11:00pm last night while I parked in the neighbor's drive--and when our drive was clear, I drove into the driveway.
Today, there is no change in the condition of my step-daughter's grandmother on her mother's side. I imagine that when the time comes, they will allow her to pass on, because it's my belief that she's already gone from the body. The family is waiting for another of grandma's daughters to come home to help with the remains, and the doctors are simply waiting for the heart to give out again.
A sad state of affairs for a Christmas season for all of us, and the only good part is that both Jeff and I are having a very restful vacation, where I'm getting in some much needed rest and knitting time.
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