Life Goes On......

    Oriental Poppy.

As some of you may remember, my family has been planning a birthday party for our father.

He will be 95 years old this coming Thursday. The party is planned for Sunday at my sister's house which is actually just 'down the street' from Dad's house.

Everything has been checked and double checked and each of us 'kids' has our assignment. Mine is to make a seafood chowder. I will do that on Saturday.

Another of my assignments was to contact 'heads of government' both locally and nationally. Since Dad is celebrating a milestone birthday, all the levels of government will recognize this if asked. So I did.

I have received  a certificate from the Mayor of Halifax, the Premier of Nova Scotia, the MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) for Dad's riding, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (the Queen's official representative for the province), the Prime Minister of Canada, and the Governor General of Canada (the Queen's official representative for the country).

The plan is to have Dad's great-grandchildren read each of the certificates at different times throughout the party. All the certificates have been placed into a scrapbook from which they will read. Fingers crossed that it will work out smoothly.

As life does have the habit of doing on occasion, Dad got an unexpected call from his brother-in -law yesterday.  Dad's sister, Eileen, has taken a turn for the worse. She has been living with Alzheimer's Disease for the past two years.

She is not expected to live much longer. Dad of course is very upset. She is the youngest in his family. His two younger brothers have died, so this leaves just Dad and Eileen.

What to do about the party should she die between now and then. We are taking one day at a time and will discuss this with Dad daily. I am of the mind to still have the party regardless of what happens.

Life is in a constant flux and as we grow older it is sometimes more difficult to plan things. Must learn to expect the unexpected I guess.