Grandma's 90th Birthday

My grandmother, my dad's mom, is the only living grandparent I have left.  She grew up in Medicine Hat.  Except for the first 10 years or so of her marriage, that was all in the same house.  The home that my great-grandfather built for my great grandmother back in the early 1920's.

In 2006 (I think?) she moved out of that house and into a seniors condo that was only a few minutes away from her old house.  Then right before Christmas of 2010 she arrived at my parent's house in preparation for all of us celebrating the holidays in Victoria, and the femur bone in her leg broke.  It had a crack in it already from her severe osteoporosis. 

After spending time in the hospital in Edmonton, the hospital in Medicine Hat, and my parent's house - she finally moved into assisted living close to where my parent's live.

Her mind is still pretty good for 90, even if it is selective sometimes and she has troubling remembering things.  Her body on the other hand is slowly failing.  She has congestive heart failure, chronic lung problems and her legs don't move so well. 

On January 30 she turned 90.  My mom asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday.  She requested that we all go out to my parent's house in Victoria.  She and my parents and my youngest brother spent two weeks out there.  Myself, my other younger brother, his girlfriend flew out on Thursday evening.  My cousin and his wife (who is pregnant with the first great-grand child) arrived on Friday afternoon.

I really love this house - this is the view of the back that I took from the beach below

It was a great weekend and my grandmother had a wonderful time.  Everything went well except the part where my mom and I went over to the produce store about 20min away and blew a tire.  Thank goodness for a good samaritan who helped us with the lug nuts. 

We ended up getting back super late last night.  First my dad accidentally booked the return flight for March 9 instead of February 9.  I called Westjet (yeah for 24/7 customer service) and rebooked the flight - but the only one that did not cost us a whole bunch of extra money was the 7:00pm through Vancouver that got us in Edmonton at 12:30am.  Then when we were about the leave Vancouver, there was a medical incident on the incoming flight and we ended up being 30min late.  We landed at 1:05am, got my bag, and a friend of my brother's drove us home.  I was in bed at 2:00am.

Yawn I am so tired today.

If only we had left the house in Victoria about 15min earlier - or I had no checked bag.  We might have made the 6:15 direct flight home.  The agent tried, but the flight was closed unless we had no checked bags.

I plan on going to bed early tonight (after watching Downton Abbey and The Walking Dead).

Here is a picture of me at Hatley Castle on the Royal Roads University campus.  We tried to take a tour inside but it's closed for the season.  We did walk around the museum and grounds a bit.