About a week before we left for our trip to Ontario, one of John's sisters called John and wanted to change some plans for a family gathering over Christmas. John didn't know anything about it, asked her not to do anything and if she wanted particulars to call their cousin. Well his sister isn't talking to this cousin, so she called this cousin's brother and changed the arrangements to a four hour family gathering in a nursing home.
[That's just what I want to do on my trip to Ontario: visit for four hours with people I've never met, see someone suffering with Parkinson's after my father died of a Parkinson's stroke, and try to keep 3 little boys quiet in a nursing home for 4 hours. Thank you .]
John called his sister and let her know we didn't appreciate how she changed a family dinner in a restaurant to a four hour ordeal. She got mad and hung up on him, then emailed him for an apology and later called him and demanded an apology. John didn't apologize and she hung up again. [Knowing John, what was she expecting?] So after complaining to Dad and his wife about us, and then hearing from them that she should have kept her nose out of it, she decided NOT to come for Christmas. Dad got mad and told her off, so then she really wasn't coming for Christmas.
She apparently told the rest of the family that we weren't coming to the nursing home, so when we showed up, we really surprised John's aunt. This aunt quickly got on the phone and called a few others and so we had an okay visit with several people John hadn't seen in more than 30 years. Apparently his sister is quite close to several of these aunts, hence she felt it was important that we see them. John isn't. It meant we had a really long day ..
There's a reason John moved west. As this was going on before we were even in Ontario, John said the situation reminded him of when he was in high school, living at home and dealing with all the of his sisters' issues. We knew 'something' would happen during our trip to Ontario and it was kind of nice that it all happened before we got there and then we could enjoy ourselves as much as possible.
John's Mom had knee surgery about a week before Christmas, so I did all the cooking at her house. I wish I was more familiar with her kitchen, it would be nice if she cleaned more and got rid of the mould, and although her fridge was full, there really wasn't much food there for a family to enjoy. She really improved by the end of our stay there and was much more mobile and confident with the new knee. John's Dad is going through radiation for prostate cancer; the prognosis is good. At the beginning of December, Dad's wife fell down the stairs in the middle of the night and smashed her wrist. She's facing surgery this winter, but she seems to be in good spirits.
With some issues with Facebook, I was temporarily locked out and missed a message from one of John's nieces. She would have had some time to see us, but since I didn't get the message we missed seeing her. I feel really bad about that.
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