Taking Things Slowly
Yesterday, my son David and I finished up most of the essential tasks related to my sister's interment and the clearing of her apartment. It gave me a rather odd feeling to reach 30 inches down into a hole in the ground to place the bundle containing Jean's ashes in their final resting place, then concluding a brief ritual with a stammered benediction. That done during a rain shower, we moved on to her former apartment to pick up a few last items to be saved or distributed to family members. By noon, the chaps from 1-800-Got-Junk franchise had loaded their dumpster about 2/3rds full with whatever remained. We then completed the vacuuming of the floors before leaving the empty apartment. At precisely 12:15 pm we handed the keys to the manager and took our leave.
Strange as it may seem, drivign home along Hwy. 407 we talked about little else than what I would want for my funeral and settling of my estate when the time comes. David will have some if not most of the responsibility for that too as joint executor with my bank and his sister Diane.
This morning David called me to tell me that he has been advised by a local jeweller in Owen Sound that some of the jewellry might well bring a few more hundreds of dollars to Jean's estate
when sold in an auction this fall or next spring. A stamp dealer we consulted a couple of weeks ago also had called to inform him that a collection of RCMP medals we had left with him were worth about $75 to an interested party. So a little more is garnered to defray the estate expenses.
Now it is time for both David and I to take things slowly. I am going to read an excerpt of book about which I found an article in Maclean's Magazine yesterday, "In Praise of Slow." If all goes well, David is to head for the Merton family cottage north of Mont Laurier, QC over the weekend.
John Shearman
posted by John @ 11:45 AM
3 Comments:
I am not sure how to add to what has already been posted to my blog yesterday. But I shall make this comment:
I met a man today who is 20 shifts from retired from Stelco Canada in Hamilton, ON. He is scared stiff of turning into a couch potato. He asked me what I do in my retirement. Ha! If he only knew that the complaints of most retirees is that rhey have too much to do andno time for themselves. I suggested that he look for some volunteer work at the local hospital, for instance. I also suggested that he look in the local weeklies where any number of groups are asking for volunteers.
It has been nearly two months since I began this blog. A lot has happened in my life since. The youngest of my three sisters took critically ill and died on June 22 in Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto. Arranging and participating in her memorial service, then helping to remove all her goods and chattels from her apartment has been a long, hot chore. But the end of that task is in sight now that everything of worth has been disposed of in one way or another. Next Wednesday should see the last pieces of junk removed and the keys turned over to the building manager.
Monday, July 25.
I think it best to date these comments, because there doesn't seem to be any other way to show when a particular comment was made.
That makes sense, doesn't it? It would seem, however, that Pacific Time is used by Blogspot, probably because that is where the main computer handling these blogs is located.
How hot is hot as far as the weather is concerned? It would seem that anything close to 30C or 90F is called hot. Well, that is what it is now at 10:50 a.m. here in Oakville. I wonder how much higher the temperature will climb today before we reach the limit of our endurance.
TGFAC - Thank God for air conditioning. This is the kind of weather when one wants/needs to stay indoors in an air conditioned building. That is where I plan to stay for the rest of the day.
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