If you read the “Case of Circumstance” story then you know about Mom. This then is a very nice heartfelt writing to Mom, from a young lady who cared enough to express herself. Thank you Jayde, well done. ~
***
Angel in disguise
I never truly knew you, but you’ll always have a place in my heart.
“Well isn’t that just something” Auntie Vi
Cause you left a beautiful mark.
You tainted us all in such a beautiful way,
And I know you will be the one watching over us on those rainy days.
I will forever remember you as an angel in disguise.
I think it was all the innocence in those blue eyes,
I’m pretty sure that’s what gave it away.
You were the guardian angel that would be watching over our family someday..
I’ll miss your laugh and your awfully cute smile..
And that day I came and reminisced with you for awhile.
I would give up my sweetest memory
Just to let you see,
How much you really do mean to me.
So even though, you have passed on,
In my dreams is where you’ll stay…
There we can still dance the nights away.
You filled our lives with joy and laughter,
And that’s something I can hold onto forever.
So no matter how far away your soul may go,
You will always be known as Auntie Vi to me though.
I love you.
Jayde ~ Apr/09 ©
C'ya
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Daily Burdens
While trying to cope
With life’s daily toils
You raise up your hands
To hold back the tide.
However-
Slowly but inevitably -
The water seeps through
The fingers.
Eric Valentine Jan/02 ©
C'ya
With life’s daily toils
You raise up your hands
To hold back the tide.
However-
Slowly but inevitably -
The water seeps through
The fingers.
Eric Valentine Jan/02 ©
C'ya
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Of Nicer Things
I was kind of looking forward to a little trip out we made a few days ago. Near where we live among these rolling hills, there is a country greenhouse/farm. Last year when we discovered this place we met the owner, a really nice lady. She was kind enough to give us a few pots for our balcony garden.
This year we went shopping for more plants. However the main reason we couldn’t wait to visit was in the pictures you will see. Her husband is in the import business and boy did we get surprised. Hope you enjoy the pictures. ~ click on thumbnails. ~
These are a pair of Australian Cape Barron geese. They can be quite intimidating so caution is advised when visiting, we called them the guard dogs..
This Black necked swan speaks for itself & does have a mate. Like the aussie geese they are always in pairs.
These beauties caught our eye last year and the only ones we saw at that time. These magnificent specimens are kept in a heated barn over the winter. Her husband brought them in from Cuba.
The most beautiful of all geese, Red-breasted Geese, breed in Arctic Siberia and winter in southeastern Europe, so are perfectly at home in a Canadian winter. ~
C'ya
This year we went shopping for more plants. However the main reason we couldn’t wait to visit was in the pictures you will see. Her husband is in the import business and boy did we get surprised. Hope you enjoy the pictures. ~ click on thumbnails. ~
These are a pair of Australian Cape Barron geese. They can be quite intimidating so caution is advised when visiting, we called them the guard dogs..
This Black necked swan speaks for itself & does have a mate. Like the aussie geese they are always in pairs.
These beauties caught our eye last year and the only ones we saw at that time. These magnificent specimens are kept in a heated barn over the winter. Her husband brought them in from Cuba.
The most beautiful of all geese, Red-breasted Geese, breed in Arctic Siberia and winter in southeastern Europe, so are perfectly at home in a Canadian winter. ~
C'ya
Monday, May 18, 2009
Case of circumstance
There is no doubt that my friends have wondered where I have been this last while. I have not been writing lately, because there has been so much going on since the end of last year. Even now there is unfinished business to take care of, but things will settle sometime soon.~
This then is a true story, (unproven of course) that one only reads in horror comics you would assume. Not true! These things actually happen around us all the time. We got a first hand taste of the horrors of climbing aboard a nightmare express. ~
Case of circumstance
Where does one start when fumbling around in a nightmare. This particular bizarre case of circumstance started sometime it seems, an eternity ago and is still wandering among the gases of the universe, looking for a place to set its feet down. It’s unbelievable that things like this can exist in today’s world, let alone flourish with such a vengeance.
It all began it seems so innocently, but that was just the first illusion. Of course no story would be complete if it didn’t include mother. In this instance this account is all about Mom, for every tale has to have a beginning.
There is something about the geographical distances between two points that leaves one at a distinct disadvantage. In this case, that is an understatement. Sometime before Christmas mom reported in with the complaints of pains in her leg. This stems it turned out, from a fall she had when negotiating a patch of winter residue, commonly called ice.
It follows then that it wasn’t too long before the phone rang again. They had done a scan on mom’s leg and unearthed a small fracture; thus necessitating her putting on a walking cast, which already, she was complaining about having to use.
Seeing as she was supposed to be coming down to our area for a Christmas visit, we wondered if this would put paid to that plan. One has to assume that the attraction of mom seeing her children, also the influence of opening Xmas gifts, definitely had to have had some bearing in overruling any pain and her eventual arrival.We spent a couple of days shopping and debating politics of all things. Mother was a staunch supporter of Obama and I couldn’t argue against that. She was a sharp one, I can tell you.
Not long after mom returned home up north, she apparently went down with a heavy case of the flu bug, vomiting and some diarrhea. Surprisingly it reached sufficient enough consequence that she called an ambulance and they transported her to the hospital where she was admitted. Needless to say, that seems to be when the train went completely off the rails. How do you get from a bout of flu to the horror of what all this turned into? ~
The first indication surfaced when trying to talk with her on the phone one night, she seemed quite disoriented though still lucid. After making enquiries of the hospital staff, it appears that they were giving mom something narcotic for pain to which she had a reaction. We later found out it was morphine.
As days went by; despite daily visits from her best friend and calls from us to the hospital, nurses, and doctors, anyone that would even listen, her condition got drastically worse. Meanwhile the morphine treatment continued.
At this point the wife was going frantic trying to get hold of the doctor, any doctor and stop the morphine treatment, this eventually was accomplished, but at what health damage cost to Mom? Getting any information from staff at the hospital was next to impossible and even then, it was unreliable and suspect at best. There was an obvious impression, that nobody would admit or take responsibility for what was going on. One was left with an obvious feeling of the neglect, irresponsible and cavalier attitude that seemed to persist, day after day, whenever we called , meanwhile time was passing by.
After doing our own internet research into the symptoms, we concluded that mom was now suffering, from “drug induced delirium,” a fact that was later confirmed, albeit verbally, after much haranguing by us to the doctor and medical staff.
It got worse; for it seemed that while mom was reduced to this delirium state a social worker decided to do an evaluation on mom. Now who in their right mind would even think of doing something like that in Mom’s condition? Of course with mom not even knowing what planet she lived on in her delirium, the obvious evaluation results were disastrous. What did they expect with all that she had gone through and still, she was being administered drugs for pain, which had contributed to the situation in the first place!
The SW yahoo then recommended her for a nursing home for which there was a waiting list (ALC). (ALC is at a cost of $50 a day until placement.) ($1500 a month is a nice lucrative business if you ask me.)
To say that a battle royal ensued to get mother off the drugs and have a chance for her system to recover somewhat, would be another understatement. Trying at the same time, to fight off this other unmentionable social misfit, who would certify mom given half the chance. It took time but we did prevail to a point and mom did recover a little for a while.
Through most all of this though it has to be said that never in my whole life have I ever experienced such a circus and this place was supposed to help people get better? There were just so many things; certainly too many to list, but the overall effect was a situation of never being able to get in contact with the patient, on too many occasions, plus what seemed to be, neglect of mom, too many times to count. Left in soiled diapers for excessive periods of time. Left to feed herself with no help in her weak condition. Oft times she couldn’t even reach the phone or water and no doubt was dehydrated, and the list goes on.
I really couldn’t understand at first why every time we got hold of a nurse, it turned out to be a different nurse, seemingly looking after mom each day. Now there’s a good avoidance system if you want to look at it that way. How can you attach any blame or responsibility when every day it was different people. No wonder it was near impossible to get information or someone to talk to most of the time, they certainly wove a mystic maze. I know it would be easy to scoff, and say talk about paranoia, but believe me folks these things really happened. As always in cases like these it’s impossible to prove anything, for the carousel keeps turning.
The next ‘surprise’ out of the blue, came the information that they had moved mom to a place for seniors, “a care facility” which also ran a few beds for a slow pace rehab, a 3 month program designed to help people recover at a less hectic pace.
We thought that when she was moved to the new place that things would improve, after all, that was the reason for the move in the first place, what a mistake that thought was. It just seemed like more of the same, with the added method of avoidance thrown in for good measure, talk about isolation from the world! They sure did a good job of that for a while. Eventually came the remarks; mom was a difficult patient and would not do her rehab etc, etc. I reckon that’s always a good cover up for any shortcomings. The next segment of bad news was mom had been moved overnight back to the hospital in an attempt to reverse the drug effects. Apparently ‘someone’ had given her an overdose of dilaudid, a narcotic drug, even stronger than morphine, which caused the drug induced delirium in the first place. Talk about a comedy of errors! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One can but imagine the physical & mental state of the patient after all that she had been through. This round of affairs could only have a drastically sad ending, after all she was just a 100 lb, 82 yr old lady.
After so many heart-breaking phone calls where mom couldn’t even pick up the phone (someone had to do that for her) and then we didn’t even register with her, as she just sat there a blank look on her face. Medication Roulette again?
Elizabeth, still calling out her name time & time again without response.
Mom! Mom! Mom can you hear me?
How come you can’t talk anymore!
It was heart breaking to sit and watch let alone listen.
Oh how my heart ached at that time for the misery the wife was going through and all to no avail, as mom finally just dropped the phone without a word passing her lips.
Elizabeth just broke down and sobbed and sobbed.
More days followed like this. I swear I thought the wife, torn to shreds with what was happening, was going to have a breakdown.
I felt bad because we couldn’t get up there because of my situation, though I doubt mom would have recognized us if we were able to be there. As it was moms best friend was the one who was with her almost every day. The brother visited on weekends, both keeping us informed of all progress.
A couple of more days passed by and seeming like an eternity, then in the night we got the final call. Mom had passed away.
Oh the anger I felt at this news.
A death that just didn’t have to happen.
A story that should not have had to be written.
Eric Valentine © May 6/09
C'ya
This then is a true story, (unproven of course) that one only reads in horror comics you would assume. Not true! These things actually happen around us all the time. We got a first hand taste of the horrors of climbing aboard a nightmare express. ~
Case of circumstance
Where does one start when fumbling around in a nightmare. This particular bizarre case of circumstance started sometime it seems, an eternity ago and is still wandering among the gases of the universe, looking for a place to set its feet down. It’s unbelievable that things like this can exist in today’s world, let alone flourish with such a vengeance.
It all began it seems so innocently, but that was just the first illusion. Of course no story would be complete if it didn’t include mother. In this instance this account is all about Mom, for every tale has to have a beginning.
There is something about the geographical distances between two points that leaves one at a distinct disadvantage. In this case, that is an understatement. Sometime before Christmas mom reported in with the complaints of pains in her leg. This stems it turned out, from a fall she had when negotiating a patch of winter residue, commonly called ice.
It follows then that it wasn’t too long before the phone rang again. They had done a scan on mom’s leg and unearthed a small fracture; thus necessitating her putting on a walking cast, which already, she was complaining about having to use.
Seeing as she was supposed to be coming down to our area for a Christmas visit, we wondered if this would put paid to that plan. One has to assume that the attraction of mom seeing her children, also the influence of opening Xmas gifts, definitely had to have had some bearing in overruling any pain and her eventual arrival.We spent a couple of days shopping and debating politics of all things. Mother was a staunch supporter of Obama and I couldn’t argue against that. She was a sharp one, I can tell you.
Not long after mom returned home up north, she apparently went down with a heavy case of the flu bug, vomiting and some diarrhea. Surprisingly it reached sufficient enough consequence that she called an ambulance and they transported her to the hospital where she was admitted. Needless to say, that seems to be when the train went completely off the rails. How do you get from a bout of flu to the horror of what all this turned into? ~
The first indication surfaced when trying to talk with her on the phone one night, she seemed quite disoriented though still lucid. After making enquiries of the hospital staff, it appears that they were giving mom something narcotic for pain to which she had a reaction. We later found out it was morphine.
As days went by; despite daily visits from her best friend and calls from us to the hospital, nurses, and doctors, anyone that would even listen, her condition got drastically worse. Meanwhile the morphine treatment continued.
At this point the wife was going frantic trying to get hold of the doctor, any doctor and stop the morphine treatment, this eventually was accomplished, but at what health damage cost to Mom? Getting any information from staff at the hospital was next to impossible and even then, it was unreliable and suspect at best. There was an obvious impression, that nobody would admit or take responsibility for what was going on. One was left with an obvious feeling of the neglect, irresponsible and cavalier attitude that seemed to persist, day after day, whenever we called , meanwhile time was passing by.
After doing our own internet research into the symptoms, we concluded that mom was now suffering, from “drug induced delirium,” a fact that was later confirmed, albeit verbally, after much haranguing by us to the doctor and medical staff.
It got worse; for it seemed that while mom was reduced to this delirium state a social worker decided to do an evaluation on mom. Now who in their right mind would even think of doing something like that in Mom’s condition? Of course with mom not even knowing what planet she lived on in her delirium, the obvious evaluation results were disastrous. What did they expect with all that she had gone through and still, she was being administered drugs for pain, which had contributed to the situation in the first place!
The SW yahoo then recommended her for a nursing home for which there was a waiting list (ALC). (ALC is at a cost of $50 a day until placement.) ($1500 a month is a nice lucrative business if you ask me.)
To say that a battle royal ensued to get mother off the drugs and have a chance for her system to recover somewhat, would be another understatement. Trying at the same time, to fight off this other unmentionable social misfit, who would certify mom given half the chance. It took time but we did prevail to a point and mom did recover a little for a while.
Through most all of this though it has to be said that never in my whole life have I ever experienced such a circus and this place was supposed to help people get better? There were just so many things; certainly too many to list, but the overall effect was a situation of never being able to get in contact with the patient, on too many occasions, plus what seemed to be, neglect of mom, too many times to count. Left in soiled diapers for excessive periods of time. Left to feed herself with no help in her weak condition. Oft times she couldn’t even reach the phone or water and no doubt was dehydrated, and the list goes on.
I really couldn’t understand at first why every time we got hold of a nurse, it turned out to be a different nurse, seemingly looking after mom each day. Now there’s a good avoidance system if you want to look at it that way. How can you attach any blame or responsibility when every day it was different people. No wonder it was near impossible to get information or someone to talk to most of the time, they certainly wove a mystic maze. I know it would be easy to scoff, and say talk about paranoia, but believe me folks these things really happened. As always in cases like these it’s impossible to prove anything, for the carousel keeps turning.
The next ‘surprise’ out of the blue, came the information that they had moved mom to a place for seniors, “a care facility” which also ran a few beds for a slow pace rehab, a 3 month program designed to help people recover at a less hectic pace.
We thought that when she was moved to the new place that things would improve, after all, that was the reason for the move in the first place, what a mistake that thought was. It just seemed like more of the same, with the added method of avoidance thrown in for good measure, talk about isolation from the world! They sure did a good job of that for a while. Eventually came the remarks; mom was a difficult patient and would not do her rehab etc, etc. I reckon that’s always a good cover up for any shortcomings. The next segment of bad news was mom had been moved overnight back to the hospital in an attempt to reverse the drug effects. Apparently ‘someone’ had given her an overdose of dilaudid, a narcotic drug, even stronger than morphine, which caused the drug induced delirium in the first place. Talk about a comedy of errors! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One can but imagine the physical & mental state of the patient after all that she had been through. This round of affairs could only have a drastically sad ending, after all she was just a 100 lb, 82 yr old lady.
After so many heart-breaking phone calls where mom couldn’t even pick up the phone (someone had to do that for her) and then we didn’t even register with her, as she just sat there a blank look on her face. Medication Roulette again?
Elizabeth, still calling out her name time & time again without response.
Mom! Mom! Mom can you hear me?
How come you can’t talk anymore!
It was heart breaking to sit and watch let alone listen.
Oh how my heart ached at that time for the misery the wife was going through and all to no avail, as mom finally just dropped the phone without a word passing her lips.
Elizabeth just broke down and sobbed and sobbed.
More days followed like this. I swear I thought the wife, torn to shreds with what was happening, was going to have a breakdown.
I felt bad because we couldn’t get up there because of my situation, though I doubt mom would have recognized us if we were able to be there. As it was moms best friend was the one who was with her almost every day. The brother visited on weekends, both keeping us informed of all progress.
A couple of more days passed by and seeming like an eternity, then in the night we got the final call. Mom had passed away.
Oh the anger I felt at this news.
A death that just didn’t have to happen.
A story that should not have had to be written.
Eric Valentine © May 6/09
C'ya
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Fooled again
Last week we had temperatures in a range up to, believe it or not, as high as 17c. The last two nights nature turned nasty and dumped about a foot of snow on us, the robin is not amused..
Where did the spring go!
C'ya
Where did the spring go!
C'ya
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
At what cost
This video is a sad reminder of the price the military pays, that we may enjoy the freedoms of our country. We salute you.
Uploaded on authorSTREAM by aSGuest15191
C'ya
Uploaded on authorSTREAM by aSGuest15191
C'ya
Monday, March 2, 2009
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