Ottawa visit

It’s October 31, Hallowe’en day! I’m sitting in daughter Jennifer’s dining room in Ottawa, looking out at a dark and sodden sky, from which rain has been falling all day. The promise is that the rain will become heavier as evening comes on, so that costumed children going door to door will be soaked to the skin.  The daylong dark sky reminds me of one the reasons I left Ottawa. Three of four consecutive days like this, and I would be depressed out of my mind!

I’ve been visiting here for two weeks now. I will return home on Sunday, arriving in the late afternoon (in time to watch Battle of the Blades!) Staying such a long stretch has been good in many ways. I’ve been able to spend more time with Jennifer, as she takes breaks between endless reams of translation work. I’ve had a number of really good conversations with grandson Raphael over dinner, which we usually eat together, as Jennifer is out at her daily workout. Managed to have one restaurant dinner with all four grandsons – something I’ve never managed previously!  I’ve also had some serious conversation with Diego about his future endeavors. I even managed a lunch meeting with Gabriel, the boys’ father. We hadn’t met or talked face to face in many years. It was a nice, low-key connection. Perhaps I can continue that  in the future.

This eighteen-day visit constitutes my vacation for the year. Although I have no paid employment, I am kept busy at home with household responsibilities – shopping and cooking mostly. I miss these activities when I am away, and have, in fact, cooked for Jennifer and Rapha on three occasions while here! It gave me a real sense of “contribution” to Jennifer’s busy work life to do this for her and her son.

I have walked over an hour each day while here, mostly to Cafes for a latte or a bun. Tramping the New Edinburgh streets took me back almost 30 years, when we lived and worked here. So much about this old area is charming. But when it rains in the autumn…the sidewalks are soggy underfoot with bundles of wet leaves. The skies, as I have mentioned are gloomy and dark, and when added to the gloomy and depressing political situation in our Capital, the total effect is extremely cheerless.

There has been some real learning for me, as I get to know my grandsons as adult males, or advanced teenagers, rather than little boys. They all have plans for education and growth, and each of them displays a slightly different personality, although they clearly are brothers. There was considerable joy for me watching them talk together, for it had been some months since they last met alone. I feel a sense of pride as I think of them as, in a partial way, my progeny.

There are still a couple of gatherings to be had, and hopefully some time at the end of Diego’s tattooing gun! I think I will return home with a real sense of satisfaction that my visit and vacation were both worthwhile for me.