May 1, 2022

May Day. May 1. I always think of my maternal grandmother on this date May 1. My maternal grandmother was born on May 1, 1874. And on that spring morning she was named May Belle. May Belle Willis, 1872-1940. She lived a full life – born in Boston, attended. Wellesley College, married an MIT graduate, moved to Minnesota, gave birth to 4 daughters, moved to Omaha, sadly buried one of the twin daughters, moved back to the Boston area, wrote and taught music, an active member of the Baptist church and the Winchester Community, raised the 3 daughters who in turn married and had children so May Belle was grandmother to 3 grandchildren before she passed away in 1940 at age 68.

Sadly I did not get to know my maternal grandmother as I was only 3 I/2 years old when she passed away.

My maternal grandmother’s home in Winchester Massachusetts. This house is still there.
From left to right, My great-aunt, me (Janet), my cousin Betsy, and our grandmother in the late 1930’s

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Books Read – April 2022

The Greengage Summer by Rumor Godden

The Bolter by Frances Osborne

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Painted Drum by Louise Eldrich

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

The list is for April is not very long but each selection was very good. Excellent reading and I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite.

Postcard Scanning

I am having trouble with scanning my photos and postcards. I scan the postcard and I give it a name and save it. It should be easy to find. Well, it isn’t. I keep getting an old list of items scanned some time ago. Here is an example: I scanned a postcard of Lyme Regis (town in England). The image was from An Original Watercolor Drawing by A. R. Quinton. I save the scan in a Local Folder 20xxxxxx Lyme Regis. Then when I try to call it up for my blog, I get a file of older items that I have scanned.

Waiting for the Hospital Bed

Will it come? When will it come? Will it come at all??

YES. It came – in fact it was there all the time and nobody realized.

Anyhow now it is all set up and functioning well. Comfort all around!

In the past few days there has been a cascade of people coming to tell me this and that. Of course one contradicting the other and so on.

And here I sit just calmly spinning away

Waiting Time

Don’t you love waiting in for a repair man to come or a delivery of some sort——-and then nothing happens. No repairs, no deliveries. Such was the case yesterday (Friday April 22). I was waiting delivery of a hospital bed for my husband. I had had conflicting messages regarding the delivery – and also conflicting instructions regarding what to do to be ready for THE DELIVERY.

Around 12:30 a delivery man came with the wheelchair, as promised. Then he went away. I thought he was just going out to his van to get the bed. Time passed. Maybe the delivery man was eating his lunch. ………..Then I thought he must be on his way back to his company headquarters to get the missing bed. (Incidentally traffic was quite disrupted yesterday with President Biden’s visit ). Time passed. By late afternoon I was beginning to feel rather angry and neglected. I started make inquiries. Oh said one staff member – I’ll go find out for you. Time passed. Said staff member never returned.

I chose another staff member. She did return with the information that the bed was going to be delivered that evening at 9 p.m. Hmm. The next morning the men would return to assemble the bed. Well o.k. That schedule at least had “firm” information. I was semi-satisfied.

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Even better, the bed was delivered last night at 7 p.m. BUT the bed was left in the hall, unassembled.

Two senior members of staff discussed the next step.

I called my son – he said oh no that plan is all wrong – or words to that effect.

Well here we are the next afternoon. This morning I personally pushed furniture around and out the door and have cleared space for our double bed to be moved and there is now plenty of space for the assembly and placement of the new hospital bed.. Not a word from the staff nor the assembly man, if there is such a being.

My husband is sleeping comfortably t(so far) through the whole wretched business. And of course the unassembled hospital bed is still out in the hallway. This is Saturday afternoon.

………to be continued