Saturday, September 15, 2012
A few weeks ago one of the coordinators of the BOND program asked if I could help with their booth at this picnic. Courtney had originally planned to attend but something came up and Connie wasn’t able to do it on her own. I told her I didn’t sing or dance, and when she assured me that wasn’t necessary I said I could do it. When I talked to Connie last night to see what was required she told me we were supposed to dress up in old-fashioned clothes. I told her I had some old clothes but they weren’t particularly old-fashioned.
I did some digging this morning trying to come up with something that would work. I tied my hair back with a silk scarf but when I added my gold earrings I came across with more of a gypsy than an old-fashioned look. Remember all those Hallowe’ens we dressed as gypsies? I dug a little deeper and and came up with a long skirt, and a white cotton shirt. I found some clip-on earrings that were quite gaudy, with pearls and shiny stones. Then I added a big brooch, packed my picnic in a basket and I was ready to go. When I met Connie at the BOND office she had one of her grandmother’s bonnets for me to wear.
The whole day was planned and run by our next door neighbour. Pat was talking to her tonight and she was disappointed by the turnout, but everyone who was there had a lot of fun. She organized all sorts of games for the kids and adults, everyone had a picnic and then she did another round of games.
The afternoon ended with an old-time band playing songs with a few people dancing. When the dancing started Connie and I started packing up. It wasn’t really quitting time but they were doing a Snowball Dance and we wanted to avoid any partners!
Before I left for the picnic this morning Margaret called to tell me she was in the hospital. She wasn’t feeling well last evening and went up to emergency and was admitted. I popped in to see her this afternoon – she had a mild heart attack. She will be medivaced to Vancouver to have a stent procedure as soon as arrangements are made. She says she is feeling fine now.
When I got there she was sitting up at the side of her bed. We were having a little chat and then her supper arrived. She wasn’t eating and the nurse came in and said she had to let me talk and she had to eat. But Margaret cannot stop talking. I’d tell her a little story about the picnic and when I took a breath she would say, “Anyway, as I was saying …” and off she would go on another story. Eventually the nurse kicked me out so Margaret would eat her supper and then they wanted her in bed!