APRIL... More of the same (Part 128l)

APRIL... More of the same (Part128l)

Sandy was released from the hospital on Monday and Elle called that night to see if there was anything she needed. She told Elle that she wanted to talk with her whenever she could find a few minutes. Elle really didn’t have a lot of free time but told her she could come right over if she was up to it. That left me to put the kids to bed. They were usually good about it, at least for Elle. But, with me, they knew they could get away with some “stuff“. Elle had warned me that Anne was an ”instigator“ and that she’d try my patience... and she did. My patience was tested, for sure!
I was beginning to get worried when Elle hadn’t returned by 10pm, Elle’s usual bed time. I was about to call over to Sandy’s when I saw the headlights in the driveway. I fully expected Elle to walk in, say ”Good night“ and head up the stairs. But she took off her coat and sat down at the counter and indicated for me to join her. It was rare for Elle to want to talk about her friends but I was a willing listener.

Sandy had been given some bad news. In fact, two doses of it. The first was that she’d probably not be able to carry a pregnancy to term. As soon as Elle told me that I felt a shudder go through my whole body. As I’ve said before, I knew how much she and Johnnie wanted a family. They were both nice people and it just didn’t seem fair that they would be denied something that, in life, seemed so natural. Elle was clearly shaken as she told me and her empathy for Sandy was evident.

The second piece of bad news was that, while being examined in the hospital, the doctor(s) had diagnosed her with  being afflicted with Spina Bifida. I remember wrinkling up my face and repeating ”Spina Bifida?“ and making a gesture to indicate I had no idea what it was. It was obvious that Elle didn’t really understand it either but Sandy had told her that it had something to do with the nerves around the spinal cord and it's a condition you're born with. I remember trying to digest what Elle was saying and fitting it in with what little I knew about back problems having had some as a result of an accident when I was still training horses. She was clearly struggling with explaining it but said it was probably the cause of Sandy’s ”dribble“ problems. Sandy had been told that it should’ve been noticed by the doctors in the hospital right after her birth but Sandy came from a rural area and hadn’t been born in a hospital. A midwife had delivered her. I knew a bit about that as my father and his mother had the same experience. In any case, through the years it hadn’t been noticed in Sandy as she had about as mild a version of it as was possible. The bad thing about it was that there was no cure for it. You’re born with it and it’s with you for life. It sounded ominous but I wanted to know more details about it. I also wondered why I’d never heard of it.

I asked Elle about Sandy’s state of mind. As I remember it she was non-committal saying that she thought Sandy was struggling nore with the fact that she’d not be able to have children. I asked about Johnnie but Elle said he was at a coaches meeting. She’d stayed with Sandy until he arrived home and she never got a chance to speak to him. By the time we headed for bed it was almost 11pm and  6:30am would soon be there. In bed, I tried putting myself in their shoes and I couldn’t. It made me realize just how lucky we were to have three healthy kids.

At work, things had slowed to a crawl. Hobie was almost back to normal, smiling and chatting with the staff once again. I spent some time observing Gina and how she was fitting in with the staff. I remember being surprised at how Letitia, the older woman on the teller line was getting on with her. The age gap was easily 25 or more years. I asked Trish for her take on her and she just shrugged her shoulders as if to say ”no problem“. I was going to ask Laura but decided to ask Liz, her boss. Her reaction was a real surprise. Liz was a bit of a curmudgeon, quick to find fault and especially with the tellers, but said something praiseworthy (although I don’t remember what it was). I’d pretty much let my visit with the president concerning her fall to the wayside so she, thankfully, was now pretty much a ”non-issue“.

All the issues with the Trustees other than the new account campaign with gifts were compleely in their hands. Even though not specifically directed to I started planning for it by contacting the advertising agency to give them enough time to be prepared. They gave me a list of things the gift distributors needed to provide like pictures and descriptions of the gifts. That week I also started to plan how we would set up the lobby to handle the opening of accounts. There was no way we’d be able to do it with the current staff. Even though it was two months away I went looking through the job applications to see what was out there. Trish asked what I was doing and laughed when I told her. She raised a very valid point... all the applicants in the file were looking for full time employment. I remember looking up at her and feeling a bit foolish.

Back at home the big excitement was that Elle had seen activity at the house next door when she got home one afternoon. I hadn’t seen anything when I arrived but when I put the garbage out after supper I saw lights on. Even though I had no idea who it was or what she (if indeed it was a she) looked like, it was good to see ”life“ at the house once again. It reminded me that we hadn’t heard anything from Celia and Sophie in quite some time.

My plan for the weekend was to work at the barn where ”B“ and I were now keeping the racecar. Even though the floor was dirt it was hard-packed which made it workable. The big thing was in making a workbench. ”B“, when I last talked with him, was starting to get excited which, in turn, was getting me excited. He told me that he’d taken the wood we needed to the barn and said that he’d climbed in the car and had pretended he was driving on the track. It had me thinking of the last time I was behind the wheel and on the track. I'd ended up crashed into the guard rail... not a good way to end my driving career.


To be continued...