We have been doing this for a number of years now starting in 2007. Each year a couple are responsible for selecting the location and organising the daily activities. This event being held the last weekend of June every year. These have been wonderful weekends I must say. And not surprisingly, we all enjoy this rather luxurious 'time out' at the start of the summer season.
We have started on the 'second round' now when Leen and I organised a weekend away in Aldstjerk/Oudkerk in Fryslân.
We stayed in Hotel de Klinze , a stately 'manor' of some status. Indoor pool, sauna, spa and Turkish steam bath. Leen and I had 'discovered' this location a few years ago ( just after Mitchell died) and have visited again last year between Christmas and New Year. The food was lovely, the location tiptop and the service of the staff second to none.
As I started to say, that's when I stopped writing! Although there was internet, the service was so slow I couldn't 'load' my evening's contribution. It just 'hung on in there' and wouldn't add to the page. So frustrating. I made a few notes to add after our return home - and it never happened.
Our last day we spent going on a short ferry ride across to the island Schiermonnikoog. Lovely place. Small but green and touristy. As we prepared to leave for home I received a phone call to say my father in law was being taken to hospital due to kidney problems.
A mad dash home - went straight to pa's place, skipping dinner, where we found him home but extremely unwell. Arrangements were made to visit the doctor the next morning and after he (re)assured us he would ring if anything happened we went home to sleep ( NOT!)
I whisked pa off to the doctor the next day and before you could say ' kidney failure' he was being admitted to hospital. Both pa's kidneys had for some unknown reason decided to stop working, but also his bladder was totally EMPTY! Had no content what so ever.
After a barrage of tests and a sad pa I had to leave him in hospital,where he subsequently stayed a whole week. Poor pa. He so wanted to be at home, he was so unsure of everything and so nervous. After a few days the kidneys started working again. Pa received gallons of fluids and had a catheter in so that all in- and outgoing fluids could be monitored and measured.
All this led to the demise of my writing. I too was concerned, hectic days followed with to-ing and fro-ing to hospital, pa's house and other activities. At night I couldn't concentrate and lounged on the couch becoming quite a potato.
It has taught me quite a lot about the nucleus of this family. I have learned a lot (more) about myself. It also woke Leen and Arie up to the reality of pa's fragility and humaness. Although I remained calm throughout the whole process my nervousness being more from 'within' than outwardly showing, I too found myself closer to pa than ever before. I kept having flashbacks to my dad and his last months. I re-visited those intensely lonesome moments I experienced at that time. Yet, it didn't make me depressed or anything, just thankful that I knew I had done my ALL for dad in those weeks and I aim to be there for pa with as much devotion and caring as I had been for dad.
Being realistic, pa hasn't got eternal life. One day we will have to farewell him ( all things being equal that he goes before one of us). I think I am slowly preparing myself for that day, making the most of the time we have left with him.
So, I am back - and hopefully there won't be too many 'breaks' like this one. I also realise now it might have been an impossible task to think I could enter a contribution EVERY DAY for a year without interruption.
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