Today I travelled by train to ottawa. My wonderful eye specialist - head of the eye institute at Ottawa General has been my eye man since the early seventies when he was practicing in Monteal- so faithfully every six months - there I am in Ottawa. These trips, up until now, have been such a fun excursons for both Mac and I. Even though a couple of the times when we were there the appointments included eye operations where we had to stay on the hospital campus for a few days, we managed to make it if not exactly fun, it would be a nice change.
Our dates there have included staying in B & B's, visiting friends, the fab national museum, shopping at Domos when it was a terrific store, going to old book stores etc. etc.
In the last few years though our good friends Ivor and Joan have been there at the station to meet and greet us - drive us to our appoiintment wait for us and then we would go out for a super lunch to one or another of the many good restaurants in ottawa. Today was no exception, although sad to say one of the seats at our table was empty...Mac no longer is able to make the trip. This is sad, as I remember in the earlier years, we often noticed t.v. personalities such as Laurier La Pierre, Patrick Watson, and various members of parliament, sometimes we just acknowledged them by a look, other times though we did get to actually meet them. Mac always had such interesting conversations, particularly if the person was in the political arena.. t'was a wonderful learning experience
As we age, of course so do our friends, my childhood friend, jean, who I reconnected with in those visits has passed on, as has the husbands of two others, others are going through post surgery and so it goes. Sitting in the train I remembered the wonderful days and today was so different without Mac. In fact he can't believe how I can possibly want to go all the way to Ottawa for an eye specialist. Mac used to be such an avid train traveller, especially since he worked for CN and always a train person, commenting on the different trains, tracks, and of course the scenery or checking the route, as well as the gazette , so with a huge hollow in my being, and a lump in my throat I went on to my Dr. Jackson, the eye specialist...
When I returned home the first words he said were...WHERE WERE YOU ?? Of course he had been told several times where and why, but that's the way it is now. But, I'm still happy because he missed me too. So g'nite.
No comments:
Post a Comment