A Good Day

A Good Day in Madeira

Jackie and I sat on the front deck, overlooking the still waters of the harbor and the myriad of sail and fishing boats at the marina next door, sipping on a Dos XX .

“It was a pretty good day wasn’t it.” She said quietly, not taking her eyes off the harbor.

Summer is always nice here.

Mom and dad live right on the water. They watch the tide rise and fall, boats come and go and seasons change from the windows of the house that they built together.

And after almost sixty years, they really are together: a team, even after dad’s stroke, or maybe more so because of dad’s stroke.

The yard is a park which sits at the end of a main street littered with dad’s sculptures and familiar faces.

Dad always goes for a ‘push’ in the morning: after his favorite neighbor and healthcare worker April prepares him for the day, and after he has taken his pills and finished the big breakfast mom makes.

“Peaches” always goes too.

Jackie and mom were off to Sechelt early, to do some shopping and go to the bank. They also looked at Kayaks.

We had talked about getting a kayak, but it isn’t easy to decide what would work best here: for everyone. And there’s a lot of kinds of kayaks: Arctic kayaks, folding kayaks, inflatable kayaks, plastic kayaks, sit-on-top kayaks, wooden kayaks, surf skis, fiberglass kayaks, river kayaks, whitewater kayaks, sea kayaks…

Jackie and mom now think maybe a row-boat would be better.

I suspect there are a lot of kinds of row-boats.

I stayed home and scanned more pictures; which translated, meant that I traveled back in time.

There were a lot of pictures of my dad: usually looking pretty handsome, and important, but I also found a few goofy ones that I hadn’t seen before. There was a family shot taken when he was a boy, maybe 14. His pants were lovely and pulled up Steve Earkle style, and he wore a crazy, lopsided grin. There was also a couple of him as a young father, dressed in a Mexican Sombrero and playing the piano, wearing that same smile.

I saw mother in a few I hadn’t seen before, or hadn’t really looked at before. In one of them she was maybe 6 or 7 and looked beautiful. But she was beautiful in all of them.

There were pictures of grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles.

There were family pictures I hadn’t seen before, and school pictures of my own children that I can never see enough of. They reminded me of a different time.

I found my sister’s obituary.

Jackie and mom got home early and we went for lunch at “The Painted Boat”: Mom’s treat for Jackie’s birthday. We ordered everything on the “small meals” menu and shared. Then we had desert. Nice - food, conversation and company. Better than nice actually. Perfect!

We waved at dad across the water and he took off his hat and waved back. He had two women fluttering around him, catering to his every need. He was doing ok!

Dave and I left the restaurant on foot and decided to go for a ‘hike’ to Daniel point, which is where the harbor meets the sea.

We turned left at the gas station and soon stood on the rocks, between the red and green Arbutus trees and the translucent, quiet water. There was a seal in the deep water, showing off.

Watching the waves breaking gently against the these rocky cliffs, it was easy to imagine what it would be like in a storm. Even though houses were popping up everywhere, this part of the world would never be tame.

Summer is great, but winter would arrive and I was glad I would be back in the sun of Australia.

Back at home I wandered around the property snapping pictures in the ‘perfect’ evening light. The trees, flowers, rocks, art work, vegetable garden, birds and deer offered lots of fodder for my camera and the sun had slipped below the horizon when I finally stopped in to say goodnight to mom and dad, just in time to catch Jackie feeding chocolate almonds to dad.

He asked if I had finished my blog.

Yup, it was a pretty good day!

It was one of those days that I am going to remember: and smile.