Dear Xenia.
"Old Bag" here! You always did make me laugh! So thanks for the memory. And congratulations on your new title. I'm sure you are totally awesome in that matriarchal role.
Now for Nat. How well I remember your always kind, always thoughtful responses to our posts. I have missed those.
And Jimmie, ah Jimmie. Your messages, full of poetry and wit, written sometimes in your heart's blood, never failed to comfort, console and inspire. I am so, so sorry for your enormous losses. But they did come after enormous joy. I can only hope that the memories of that keep you company on that long, dark road you are traveling now. But know that you are not alone, Jimmie,. We are with you. In mind and heart, if not in fact.
I am so heartened to hear your voices again. Have truly missed you all. I am still in long-term care, where I joined Karl four years ago. He died two years ago. I miss him terribly of course. He was my entire family. I do still have a tiny handful of faithful friends, whom I cherish deeply, but that void in my life can never be filled. Nor would I want it to be.
Like most of us now, I am battling health issues of my own. Most recently my heart, which presupposes the existence of one! But I am still advocating, in all media, for others who, like me, have endured the hell that is now long-term care in Canada. As a nation, we should be ashamed....
O.k. off the soapbox now! While the advocacy has yet to result in much in terms of improvement in ltc, it has brought me some wonderful new friends, even some as far away as Alberta and B.C.!
I am so hoping that, now we have all reconnected, I suspect largely through the efforts of the always-caring Katherine, we can continue to drop in on each others' lives from time to time. We are all, to a greater or lesser extent , coping with our own losses, our own isolation but, speaking for myself, I would welcome your company along that road.
Fondly,
OldBat
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