Grandma, Wilma and a Portuguese Passport

Hey there everybody! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive. Fiona and I have been in Florida for the past two months taking care of my Grandmother. She had a pretty major operation last August and has been recovering and working her way through a tract of chemotherapy. Luckily Fiona and I were in a position such that we could take some (more) time off and go help her through it.

All in all, it was a good time. We spent many hours sitting around talking about all sorts of things, and I learned the kind of stuff that can only be learned by living with somebody, as opposed to visiting. For example, I learned that when you get old and move into a retirement community the most important thing you can do all day is take in your newspaper before 10AM. If you don't you can bet that your neighbors will have worked themselves into a frenzy and will be on the verge of dialing 911 until they see that paper disappear.

Things got a little hairy when Hurricane Wilma hit though. I had returned to Connecticut to take care of some business at the Portuguese Consulate (I'm in the process of becoming a Portuguese citizen) and Fiona and Grandma were down in Florida by themselves. We knew the Hurricane was coming, but when I left it was really no big deal.

Funny how that kind of thing works though - within a day or so of my leaving it became obvious that Wilma was going to be a corker. When it finally hit it knocked out power and phone service to my Grandma's building and for two days the only way I could communicate with them was by sending text messages via the cell phone. It was pretty scary.

Luckily I managed to get them on one of the first flights out of Florida, and now everything's going fine. Grandma's going to be seeing an oncologist in Connecticut for a month or so until she returns to Florida, and now Fiona and I can focus on trying to figure out what we're going to do next.

Hope you're all doing well and you're enjoying autumn as much as I am. It's been a long time since I've seen the foliage this nice in New England and I'm digging every second of it.

Posted by flow Frazao on November 4, 2005 at 05:27 PM in Family | Permalink