Tuesday 6 August 2013

A Day To Remember... Always

Yesterday was a day that I will always remember.  Nicholas came up north to our family cottage for the afternoon!  It has been seven years since he was last here and we were all unsure whether he could withstand the pain of such a long (two hour) journey each way.

Let me tell you a bit about our cottage in the Quebec Laurentians and why yesterday was so meaningful to everyone in our family.

This old house was built by my grandparents in the 1920's.  Here's a photo of our beach in those days - my Dad is the young lad on the far right.  He passed away at the age of 54 in 1975.  Our cottage is full of memories - of spending summers learning from my Grandmother how to clean a fish, or light a fire in the wood stove.  My Dad taught me how to catch frogs and hook a bass.


I met my husband here at the lake.  Our respective grandparents were friends and my husband's family cottage is across the lake.  His parents met and married here too.  We joke sometimes when we meet 'new lake folks' - we introduce ourselves by saying, "This is my brother Darryl and my OTHER brother Darryl!"  It's a fact that there are so many Wrights and Thomsons of all ages here, it seems that everyone is related.  The lake, the memories, the rituals, the views.... it's all a deep part of who we are as a family.  My sister Karen is an artist and she paints the lake again and again.


So yesterday, our family was complete.  Nick arrived with Tom, his helper, after a long and bumpy drive through the country.  Nick was in pain.  The boys had brought the hoyer hoist along and we got Nick into bed right away for a lie down.  Tom gave him morphine and tylenol which took the edge off and pretty soon my guy was smiling again.

Our lake family began to arrive to greet Nick... brothers in law, sisters in law, cousins and friends.  Jim lit the BarBQ and we got Nick down to our balcony, overlooking the lake.  Everyone was so happy to see our Nicholas!


Nick left for home in the late afternoon after another lie-down.  We gave a second dose of pain killers just before we waved goodbye in the driveway.  Later, the boys skyped us to let us know that the drive home had been fine and Nick was full of bravado as well as relief that he had done it!!!

This morning, I called and asked whether Nick had paid for his visit to the cottage with seizures overnight.  This can happen - pain is a seizure trigger.  Only two seizures - we are so happy!  I asked Nick, "Would you like to try a cottage again, maybe in a couple of weeks?"  "Yeeeahhh" came Nick's reply.  So, we're planning a repeat lake visit, but better the next time.  We'll manage the pain more strategically and we'll get my Mom here too.  With Nicholas, every good experience is measured in the price he pays in pain.  Yesterday, the price was not too high and we're going to do it again.  Hallelujah.

No comments: