It has been some time since I experienced a Saturday so packed to the gills. Last Saturday, August 22, was definitely one of them.
At 8:45 am sharp, Paul woke me up to be ready for the 11:00 am rendezvous at Gail's. We were going to carpool to Dody's house, so as to be driven to Carmel to have lunch at Woody's, Carmel. It was one of our monthly lunches in Santa Cruz or Carmel since this past June. Our host Arline who resides at the Pacific Meadows next door, has not been doing too well these days.
On our way to and back from having lunch with Arline, we three, Ann, Gail and I, were treated with Dody's encyclopedic knowledge of Carmel. It turns out that she lived and worked there for five or six years in the early 70s. She knew almost every street, shop, and school in Carmel which had preserved itself so well that everything stayed pretty much the same today. She drove us to a shopping center where the Barnyard still stood tall and proud. It is Dody, instead off Meg Waite Clayton, that should write Typewriter Beach. By comparison with Dody's guided tour, Clayton's description of Carmel is at once anemic and weak.
After Paul picked me up at Gail's driveway around 3:00 pm, we both breathed a sign of relief, once home, thinking we could now relax and go on with our weekend routines. Little did we know that it was only the beginning of a busy Saturday.
Awaiting me in WeChat was another message from my sister. In addition to the recent passing of my late uncle's wife Aunt Yao, and hereafter funeral, my mother's youngest sister was ill and in treatment. It seems to answer the saying that misfortune never comes alone. We were all mourning for Aunt Yao who was so beautiful, gentle and kind to our family throughout her life. Meanwhile, we are especially close to our little aunt. She used to babysit me by reading to me many bedtime stories, while my grandmother and sister were out of town to visit my uncle in Shanxi.
I gathered myself together by starting to clean our house, and laying dinner components. As soon as I completed my last touch, my brother Ying called from Hong Kong. I motioned to Paul to have his dinner without me, and spent the next 45 minutes on the phone. We did quite an unusual amount of reminiscing, including my newly awakened understanding of our big niece relocating to Seattle, and the subsequent move of her parents. It seems that history does repeat itself. I could see my reflection nearly four decades ago in her coast to coast relocation. Sometimes we just have to follow our hearts, despite unknown consequences or successes.
Now that the cat was out of the bag, Ying imparted some inside story of my little aunt's condition. He had been aware, under oath, of her illness in as early as last April. Fortunately it was caught in the early stage. Both of us let out an another sigh of relief.
As usual, Ying is reliable, supportive, and understanding. I shared with him Paul's new venture with Good Day Mockingbird.
The moment I finished the last bite of my late dinner, the phone rang again. It was Nick with his two kids. We used FaceTime for another hour or two, and had rare sighting of Lee Anne who is a birthday girl today. Happy Birthday!
What a busy Saturday fully packed with news and events, sad and happy all at once! That is life, I guess.
