“The RoseBouquet”

Yes, we had a good Christmas, thanks. I hope you did too! We made some new friends, and for me that’s a greater treat than if a collector adds something unique to their collection.

How Dad has had a rough ending to the year 2006. The beginning was so special to him what with turning 90 and getting all that alpaca fibre and being celebrated a couple of times throughout the year.

On December 17, after the annual Sunday School Christmas program, treat bags were handed out the the children and also the adults. Dad came home and enjoyed three small mini chocolate bars out of his bag. Then he got a coughing fit, and lost his voice.

When he told me and others that we have laughed out loud.

I usually get laryngitis too, when I catch a cold, and my voice goes way-way-low for a couple of days, so we didn’t think too much of it. But Dad had to make as much effort to whisper as it would normally take him to shout, and of course, when he drank water for his pills, he would go into coughing spasms that wouldn’t quit.

He struggled through the holidays bravely and enjoyed Tom, (his son, my brother) and the two other guests I had invited, people I had met at Western Tract Mission, and wanted to get to know better. But once the holidays were done, he was wiped out and snoozed away the next couple of days catching up on missed naps. By Thursday morning of last week, he was fed up with being exhausted from coughing and insisted he wanted to see a doctor.

That’s when he told me there had been a nut in the third bar that got stuck in his esophagus. Now I’m thinking it may have got scratched up on the inside.

So I arranged an appointment, and this doctor said right away that he needs to see a specialist. That we should be hearing from that doctor’s office this week. So far nothing, but then, this is only the second day they should be opened again. I may just phone there this afternoon and see if the referral has come through yet.

Meantime, I’m plying Dad with all kinds of home remedies, and I think the one that is easing his exhaustion and cheering him up a bit is the raw aloe vera gel I scrap out of the fat leaves on my plants, and he eats three times a day. It has cured him of ulcers before, and of shingles, so it may just do the trick here too.