Arguments
with
Furniture

My life seems to be full of people who are getting kicked in the ass by the universe.

Cancer, with major surgery, chemo, and another major surgery. Lingering problems from a previous health crisis and escalating diabetes complication. Both of the aforementioned, and their spouse/caregiver, close and beloved family members. All living in other cities a couple of hours away.

And now my closest friend, whom I've known since elementary school and whose children are as unto my own children, had to leave her dying mother's bedside because her husband collapsed at work in cardiac arrest. Not a heart attack, mind you, but some mystery problem that he's still hospitalized and being tested and monitored for.

Then they had to come three hours by ambulance to my city for a day of tests that has turned into five days. She has no vehicle, one and a half outfits and my hide-a-bed. She spends the whole day, and most evenings, in the Cardiac ICU with her husband as they test and hypothesize. Their children are back in their city at their grandmother's house with their two aunts (one from out of province, one from overseas).

We picked her up for supper last night in the brutal cold, and she was worried and torn because her mother was doing worse. She was back at hospital when, around 10, her sisters called to tell her that her mum had died. I cabbed over with the rest of her things so she could spend the night in her husband's room, and bring my car home so that it wouldn't freeze solid in the hospital parking lot.

My family, both blood and created, will get through this. I have spoken.