5 May 2025

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND MAY 3





 

This was Pookie she was "imported" from London by my son who had to work in Amsterdam for 3 months and had asked me if I could keep his two cats because he had no garden. I said yes and 19 years later she was still with us  and died here peacefully. She was an adorable cat, very clever !

 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

 

*********  

On Saturday I wanted to go out a bit, but then it started to rain in buckets, so I quickly jumped (which is exaggerated) in my car and went to the shop where I could buy a crutch. The shop closed already at 3 pm so I had to hurry, but I found one nice and now when I go on cobbled streets (we have a lot of them here) I walk with my crutch. My son, charming as ever told me that now I really look old, but I answered him when next time he does a sport and breaks his leg, we would both look old. We always tease each other !

I was on time for the coffee and we were quite a lot, because there were visitors, so we had nice discussions and laughs and the afternoon went by very quickly. 

Sunday it still rained and my mood was rather black. My sister in law dead, my poor niece all alone, and I am far away. The funeral is on Tuesday.

I spent the whole morning to inform other family members, it's quiet difficult becdause I have to do everything in Italian, fortunately Google became a quite good translator, not like a few years ago.

We played a nice game finding words, and the afternoon was quickly over. 


3 May 2025

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

We had wonderful weather the whole week and could have our activities outside on the terrace ! It was the first time this year !

On the first of May was a holiday here and it is the use to offer a little bouquet of Lilly of the Valley. I was very surprised when Isabelle came already at 9.30 am to bring me a bouquet et half an hour later I got one from the Management ! 


Of course Rosie had to check the flowers and wanted to nibble at one leave, but I had heard that this flower is very dangerous for cats, so I had to put the vase in another place. 

I had done my shopping and getting out of my car, I don't know what I did but I tied a knot in my legs (not in a church) and fell on the ground. I tried to get up, but it didn't work and I just wanted to take my phone and call for help when 3 nurses came running towards me to pick me up. As usual I had nothing and walked alone into my room. But the next day besides my swollen hand, my leg hurt and I was full of blue spots ! My leg looked like a modern painting. 

So when I went with my friend Laure to the tulip show in the park of a castle here, I fortunately had the good idea to borrow a crutch, because I thought the paths were not smooth at all in an old castle. And indeed it was like  I had thought. 



Here I am with the crutches for the first time in my life.

Unfortunately I have to end my post here, because I have just got a message from my niece in Italy, Rick's sister died this morning. She had caught a pneumonia that took her away. Fortunately, she had not to suffer. Now my niece is all alone, and the only thing I can do is writing her, because she only speaks Italian and my Italian has rusted a bit. With the help of Google at least I write a perfect Italian.

So honestly I have to stop here. It's too sad. 




more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.
 
 
 
 
 
 

1 May 2025

HODGEPODGE MAY 1

 1. My very first edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge was published on November 10, 2010 (linked here if you're curious). Tell us something about your life from that era. 

I very well remember this year, because when you started the Hodgepodge  a few days later I (finally) became a grandma of a little baby boy, I was 67 and Rick 69. I always remember his words when I told him the news, he said "It's too late" and I told him it's not too late ! Don't look at your birth date, you are still good enough to be a grandpa. Unfortunately I didn't know that he started developing Parkinson's disease that year. There were no specific signs, except that he suddenly didn't want to travel or go out anymore. I only discovered all this now, at the time, I thought he had changed so much because he was retired. Parkinson is a vicious disease,  it took more than 10 years before it was diagnosed.

The happy parents and the 3 generations

2. What's a song you love that relates to time in some way? 

I have no idea which song, but I still loved to listen to "the Queens" and Freddy Mercury and Elton John.

3. May is nearly upon us. When did you last need to yell 'MAY DAY-MAY DAY!!'? 

😄😄😄 I never yelled or even whispered May day - May Day ! I learned at school what this meant !

4. How do you feel about food trucks? Is this a dining experience you enjoy?  Do you have a favorite What's something you've ordered from a food truck? 

I like Foodtrucks, especially when I was still working. It was so easy to send Rick to the market an buy a nicely roasted chicken, or Greek food, or Thai food. There were always several foodtrucks on all markets.

He liked to walk around the stalls meet all available Italians and there were usually a lot. So I got my chicken and he had his chats with his landsmen. I have never ordered food from a food truck, nobody does. Or there are people who order but I don't know any. 

 

 

Spanish food

 

chicken, and take aways


5. We're bidding farewell to April...what are three adjectives you might use to describe the month you're leaving behind. 

Besides a moody weather and 4 residents who died, nothing special happened, except since 2 days we have nearly summer weather.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I got a message from my niece, Rick's sister's daughter, that her mother is now in hospital with a pneumonia. She is an only child and has no family anymore. Now I don't know if I should go in case my sister in law will not return home or if I should stay here. She is 94 and we always got well together. I could take the plane from Brussels to Verona and there my niece could pick me up. But with my roller coaster disease I don't know. I would have disabled assistance, and just sit down. But there are always strikes here, today we have general strike, but apparently our staff is happy and works. I think I'll wait and see !

 

28 Apr 2025

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - IMAGE IN ING

English translation (lol) (Diplomatic corps)

 

Charly Chaplin and I, in front of his house in Ireland

Translation : I am a Princess and I bug you



in Brussels

  
 

Have a good flight ... sorry hair cut
 

 

 

more participants here, and Image-in-ing

26 Apr 2025

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE AND AAAA MONDAY

This will be a short post, on Tuesday I parked my car behind the castle got out and tripped over my own foot and landed on the soaking wet ground, as it had been raining all day.

I tried to get up, was able to sit down, but I couldn't stand up because I had nothing to hold on to. I was just about to grab my smartphone and call for help, of course no one was in the park in this bad weather.

Two men and a nurse came running up, and one of them picked me up. As always, I had nothing, went to bed early, and woke up the next morning with a hand that resembled a potato.

On Monday we had wonderful weather and were very lucky because there was another Easter egg hunting for the two primary schools here around. But it was done inside and the residents who wanted to see them and give chocolate eggs had a design on their door. I had no sign, I feared for Rosie with all the little once, she would get crazy and then I have to inhale my medication in the morning.

I couldn't go to the funerals of my friend because I felt a bit dizzy and with my swollen hand I couldn't drive. So I stayed home and didn't move.  My hand got better the next day. 


more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.
 
 
 
AWWWW MONDAY 
 




 
 
 
Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

23 Apr 2025

HODGEPODGE APRIL 24

1. The Hodgepodge lands on National Picnic Day...will you celebrate? Do you enjoy picnics? Dining out of doors picnic or otherwise? What are three or four things I'd find in your picnic basket? 

I didn't even know that a National Picnic Day exists, of course I won't celebrate. But I like picnics, it's loooong ago that we have had one, but each year you can see the Napoleon or Wellington soldiers, eating their picnic during the rehearsals of the battle. 

 

or in middle age events


2.  A time recently where you felt 'antsy'? 

 Not really, I feel more like I'm numb

3. As the saying goes...'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.'  Do you like lemonade? When did you recently need to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking?

Honestly, I don't remember ever having to make lemonade out of lemons. Here in my castle, people just live happily without any effort.

4. Recently five 'celebrities' made a brief (ll minute) foray into space aboard Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket. Did you hear about this? Your thoughts? If money were no object is this something you'd like to do someday? 
 
I never won't go a brief or a long minute into space ! It doesn't interest me at all. With the money that it would cost to see nothing, I would rather turn around our globe, visit all countries and discover beautiful landscapes, make cruises, take helicopters or small airplanes to see interesting things from above, but the moon or mars or whatever I prefer to see laying on the beach in the warm sand or in hey and admire the sky ! I also think the money for that should be spent for cancer researches and other diseases without any hope of getting healthy again.

5. Favorite thing about the 'space' you're sitting in right now? 

 

The space I am sitting in right now, is my burrow in which like an animal I feel well. Probably little Rosie is my favorite thing in my "space".

Rosie in "her" space

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Ever since my friend Andrée died, I've been thinking about death. Nature has a good way of doing things, the older you get, the less afraid you are. 

The only fear is that you'll be intubated and hooked up to tubes and become nothing more then a vegetable. In that case, most people want to be euthanized. 

Now I have two other people I get along with who are as "healthy" as I am. But who knows, maybe while we are playing Scrabble, one of us will fall off our chair and never get up again.

 

22 Apr 2025

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - IMAGE-IN-ING





 
 
Finally, you can see that spring is here. Flowers are blooming everywhere and the trees are putting on their green clothes and don't look like skeletons anymore.

 
 

more participants here, and Image-in-ing

21 Apr 2025

AWWW MONDAY - EASTER WEEKED APRIL 19




 

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS 

 

********* 

 

WEEKEND 

On Saturday we celebrated Easter together with the staff's children. A blow-up castle was set up on the lawn. In the morning, Jeanine had prepared pancake batter, enough for an army! Benches and chairs were set up, and two nurses tried out the rubber castle, jumping around in it, laughing!

The party started at 2 p.m.! The children and their parents invaded the huge park lawn and straight into the rubber castle ! After they'd had jumped enough, and the grandmothers watched and cheered them on, laughing, the whole gang was let loose to hunt for eggs. Our Easter Bunny ran around, with a nurse hiding underneath. I didn't know who that was until the end!

Here are pictures of the truly successful Easter party!






The pancakes didn't cook quick enough, to satisfy all the little but also bigger once !

Monday I think we all recovered, we had been so lucky with the weather for our Easter egg hunting, because on Monday it was cold and grey. I finished sending my Easter cards on Whatsapp, and in the afternoon we throw balls at each other and had a lot of fun and laughed a lot. Normally you should shout the name of the person who had to catch the ball and she or he had to catch it, but that only happened very seldom, the balls flew in all directions, also on heads, noses or glasses ! Then we had our coffee and the good Brussels waffels.


19 Apr 2025

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

This week started very well, the sun was shining it was warm and nothing special happened.

On Tuesday I had to pick up my medication and at the same time bought my fruits. When I came back, they had already started a simplified Scrabble, that means we didn't count the points but only composed the words. It went real well once they had all understood the rules. I was happy to play Scrabble again and we decided to do it more often. 

On Wednesday the air seemed to be clean and I managed to walk nearly all around the park, which I had never done ! I felt real good and I made a few pictures of the beauty of spring !

Just in front of my window


The ivy climbs to the fourth floor

a castle cat didn't want to be photographed

On Thursday we were all excited because we went out having lunch in a very nice Restaurant. We were 14 and had already fun in the little bus. 
Here we all climbed in the two mini buses. Fortunately there were only four wheelchairs, all the others could walk. They only needed a bit of help to push them into the bus.. 

There was a beautiful Japanese tree standing in the Garden, which is also restaurant.

This was a huge photography which hang on the wall and I found it so beautiful.
There were only invisible guests sitting at the tables, the restaurant was closed on Thursdays, but they had opened it only for us. Although the food was very good and the wine too, the place was not really cozy as we were all alone and there was no other noise then ours.

I wanted to take a picture of all of us, but some were outside to smoke a cigarette. 

Suddenly my friend Aimée told us that she was a little dizzy and didn't feel well. She had eaten her desert and had been very cheerful during the meal. Kim our "Entertainer" asked her if she wants to be driven home and she said yes. It wasn't far, so he drove her home and she lay down. We continued until everybody was ready to leave. Which we did. When I arrived in my room I was a bit tired and watched a little movie. Then it was already supper time. I always eat in my room, so I wouldn't see Aimée anymore before the next morning. 

When I got up a nurse came to inform me that Aimée after supper had laid down fell asleep and never woke up again. She was found peacefully sleeping in her bed, only she didn't breath anymore.


 here she sits on the right, besides J. who wears sunglasses. She was only 4 years older then I, 85.

When I had heard this, I went to the reception, her room was just besides. There were others gathering and some of them cried. Betty our receptionist asked me if I wanted to see her once more and I said yes, I wanted to say her good bye. She laid on her bed, like if she were sleeping. One of our nurses had put a little make-up on her face and she looked very beautiful. I stayed for a while and thought that I had actually ended up here because she had told me that this was not a restaurant but a nursing home and had showed me her room.

The rest of the day we were all numb. Later, each of us wrote a short text on a clover leaf as a card to be put in the coffin.

In the afternoon we drank coffee together and everyone had something to say about her. She was such a kind and friendly woman. It was a shame that some of those who suffered from dementia came for dinner far too early at 4.30 pm and didn't understand a thing. One sang loudly and happily, we let her sing. It wasn't her fault. But we all agreed on what a beautiful death Aimée had. Restaurant, supper, laying in bed to sleep... only it was forever. She didn't suffer, wasn't sick, everyone wished for a death like that.

So ended the week. Her son had come immediately, but her daughter lives in Canada she will surely arrive tomorrow.

It was the first time that we all grieved like that, there had been many residents brought to the hospital dead, (there is no morgue in our castle) since I am here, but we didn't know them. Mostly very sick people from the 4th floor. 



more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.