Trip to Arizona, Sept. 2012

A Wobbly Beginning

 

Our trip has begun. The last few days have been wobbly with stress. The worry started last Friday morning when my daughter called to say our Tim (16 year old grandson), had been hurt playing rugby the night before. A tackle left him with an anterior cervical dislocation. This is an unusual injury, one the emergency doctor had never seen, and extremely painful. It’s also an injury that will probably require surgery at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto.

This is the first time that I’ve been disappointed in our medical system. It began when the emergency doctor sent Tim home at midnight Thursday night to wait for his 10:00 a.m. appointment for a CAT scan. I guess there was nothing the hospital could do but still it was frightening for Tim and his parents. What if this bone punctured something, like a main artery to the brain, or a lung. We’re all capable of imagining the worst possible scenario. When the scan was done and the results read and interpreted it was after 4:00 on Friday. The orthopedic surgeon refused to come in or let the hospital make the referral to St. Mike’s. So Tim was sent home again, still in extreme pain, to wait until Monday when the fracture clinic opened at 8:00 a.m. Needless to say, Tim and all of us had a rough weekend.

On Monday, the experience with the specialist was horrible. When I heard the story, my conclusion was that this man is obviously a bully. My daughter appealed to our family doctor for help. He and his nurse were amazing. Eventually, the referral from the specialist was made. Once again, Tim has to wait for his Wednesday appointment at St. Michaels.  For me, this whole sequence has been a vivid illustration of how one uncaring person can bring misery in the midst of our usually wonderful health care system. We’re leaving today on the first leg of our journey, still concerned about Tim, although the pain has lessened somewhat or maybe he’s got used to it. His hand peeking out of the sling has become swollen. We’ll all be glad when Wednesday comes.

Before Tim’s injury, we had already been worried about Tom’s Mom. She is failing visibly. It’s hard to leave. Yet, we have to go. We’re going to Tucson so that I can conduct my mother’s memorial service. The date has been set since May.

Last night the phone rang again. My brother-in-law Rod called to say that their son, Kevin, had been killed in an accident. He was riding his bicycle and was hit by a truck. Kevin, one of our brave Canadian soldiers, had survived 7 tours of duty overseas, three of which were in Afghanistan only to die riding his bicycle to work in Canada. What a tragedy. He leaves behind his wife, two young teenaged daughters, a sister, and his Mom and Dad and of course all the extended family.

So today, we rose at five a.m. We’d set the alarm for 4:00 a.m. For some reason it didn’t ring. It’s nine now, and we’re fighting Toronto traffic. Our first stop is the nursing home to see Tom’s Mom, followed by a four hour drive west to my sister’s. After that, we may drive back to Buffalo for the night, and our plane on Wednesday. Or, we may just cancel and rebook for next week. We’ll make that decision when we get to Anne’s. So it’s a wobbly beginning, for sure.  

 

Day 2 – God’s surprises

 

Yesterday, we decided to continue our journey as planned. There was nothing we could do for Tim. My sister Anne received an entire new knee last Wednesday. She’s not well enough to go to the funeral. We don’t know Kevin’s wife and children at all. It may be the wrong thing to do but I can’t very well not be at my Mom’s Memorial Service when I’m the minister conducting the service. Life certainly is filled with twists and turns.

 

I opened my eyes this morning to the darkened hotel room in Buffalo, New York. Exercises, do my exercises first, I thought. Having me do sit-ups beside him, even in that huge King size bed, was not conducive to Tom’s sleep. He yawned, sat up and then went to the window to open the black out blinds. “Come here, Jan. You’ve got to see this,” he said. “You need to write about this trip. Every time I turn around there is another surprise.”

I gazed out the window. The morning sun was painting patches of gold on the trees surrounding our hotel. I knew this hotel was in the city, close to the airport, yet the setting from this window was peaceful backwoods country. Even the sound of planes overhead was muffled. Paradise, I thought. “Yes, Tom we’re blessed”, I said. My mind slipped back over last night.

            I remembered crossing the rainbow bridge at Niagara and entering the United States with the empty gas tank symbol glowing on the dashboard. “First stop will be a gas station,” Tom declared. Of course, downtown Niagara Falls, N.Y. is unfamiliar. Where will we look. I suggested we ask. Tom pulled into a hotel parking lot. “I’ll lock you in,” he said, after all this is an American city. Several minutes later he returned.  “There’s a cabby out front. He’s from Buffalo ( our destination). He’ll lead us to a gas station and then into Buffalo. He’s waiting at the street entrance. Tom slipped behind the wheel. “Pretty nice of him, eh” he said in our Canadian Way. I smiled. We got our gas and followed the taxi, the glowing pizza sign on its roof, a beacon in the darkness. When we stopped to pay the toll on the Grand Island bridge, the clerk said, “the guy ahead of you paid your fee”. Surprised we smiled and said, “Isn’t that nice. Thank you.” Our cabby led us to right to the airport and then disappeared into the night. He had told Tom how to find the street for our hotel. “God has surprised us with an angel tonight,” I said and Tom smiled.

We found the hotel restaurant and pulled in. Opulence, like a Greek myth surrounded us. Wow. Our eyes dazzled. Eating at Salvatorie’s must be an experience. We learned the hotel was a little further up the street. Salvatorie’s Garden Hotel is amazing. The crystal chandelier in the lobby must be 8 feet wide and 15 feet long. I took a picture, of course. When we stepped into our hotel room we found a Jacuzzi tub for two. At 10:45 the lounge dining room was closed as of course was Salvatorie’s Fine restaurant so we went down the street to Friendly’s. The waitress surprised us with a smile even though the restaurant closed at 11:00. We munched on fresh crisp salads and drank ice water with lemon. Our tummies full we returned to our hotel and the spacious Jacuzzi tub.  Exhausted we settled down in the king size bed and slept. Our long day was finally over.

 

I opened my eyes this morning to the darkened room. Exercises, do my exercises first. Having me do sit-ups beside him, even in that huge bed, was not conducive to Tom’s sleep. He yawned, sat up and then went to the window to open the black-out blinds. “Come here, Jan. You’ve got to see this,” he said. “You need to write about this trip. Every time I turn around there is another surprise.”

 

I gazed out the window. The morning sun created patches of gold on the trees surrounding our hotel. I knew this hotel was in the city, close to the airport, yet the setting from this window was country. No planes roared overhead. Paradise, that’s what I could see. I smiled and nodded. Yes, Tom we’re blessed.

 

An hour later we were tramping down the hall looking for the breakfast room. I’ve had hotel complimentary breakfasts before. What would this fancy place do to make the breakfast special. Sparkling lights beckoned us from the end of the hall. The breakfast lounge glittered. Plants, statues, fountains, chef and waiter mannequins welcomed us. Breakfast was somewhat the same as everywhere, although little luxuries abounded. The toaster actually worked, the orange juice was real juice, the breakfast sausages were browned nicely and tasted real. Even the scrambled eggs were spicy and hot. Another surprise. God certainly is caring for us.

 

The airport of course resembled all the rest. For the first time in my travels, I actually got the self-serve kiosk to work. It spit out our boarding passes without any argument. We slogged the security routine, with friendly helpful personnel. That was a surprise. Too often the security personnel are cold and angry. This group were business-like yes, but nice as well. One man pulled a bottle of fruit smoothie out of Tom’s bag. It had frozen in the fridge at the hotel. He squeezed the plastic bottle and said, “Good thing this is frozen. You can keep it.”

            We settled down at our gate to wait the two hours for our flight. The latest surprise was hearing our names called over the address system, “Will passengers Janet and Thomas Stobie come to the gate desk please.” Concerned, Tom jumped up. Turned out, our flight to LaGuardia in New York city was delayed so they put us on a direct flight to Atlanta. “You’ll have a while to wait in Atlanta but there’s more to do there,” the flight attendant said. We agreed. After all, the one stop ticket would have cost us one hundred dollars more. Who would we be to complain about the up grade.

            As we worry about Tim, and Anne and Rod and Kim, God seems to be offering us moments of joy to remind us that we’re not alone. God is in charge.  


Sept. 13

Well, we're here and its good. Our motel room, although not fancy, is spacious, clean and comfortable. The never ending Tucson sun shines in our window. The air conditioning works well. What more can we ask. We started our day, (after exercises and meditation) with Brunch at "the Good Egg". We met my sisters, Sharon and Dina, at Mom's and walked to the restaurant. It's wonderfully warm. Breakfast was good, and we enjoyed catching up with each other. Back at Mom's, my sisters presented me with Mom's beautiful gold Movado watch. They had set it aside for me, along with many other things. It fits perfect and will keep Mom close by all the time. They had also purchased a silver business card holder for me. They had my name engraved on it with writer and storyteller under my name. I feel very professional. It's so lovely and shiny I'm worried about it getting scratched in my purse so I've put it into its velvet carrying bag to protect it. We talked until Dina went to work at 2:00. Tom and I had a swim in Mom's pool. The thermometer said 95 F. but it didn't feel that hot. It's so much dryer here.

We left Mom's and headed for "Sprouts", a wonderful natural food grocery store where we stocked up on gluten free, organic fruit, cheese, veggies and crackers. Our motel room has a fridge and microwave. It offers a complimentary breakfast of cereal, milk, danishes, etc. We will use some of their stuff and make our own as well. We'd picked up a preroasted chicken so fixed our own supper of chicken and salad in our room. We'd brought dishes etc. from Mom's. At that point we were much too tired to do anything much, so I answered a few emails, Tom slept, and we both crawled into bed.

Sept. 14th
Rose early this morning after a good sleep. After my morning routine we trekked down the stairs to the tiny breakfast area in the motel lobby. Quite a change from the opulence of the morning before in Buffalo. We cooked our eggs in the microwave and used the motel toaster for our gluten free bread. Tom enjoyed their coffee and danishes as well.

Back in the room, I finished the rough draft of my words at Mom's memorial service. It sure feels good to have the draft done. I think I'll be able to relax a little. Tom's been gone all morning doing...I don't know. I'll find out when he gets back.