Recording good times constitutes good reporting. There is much to be gained and emulated from life’s unreported and putatively mundane but plainly happy events. Learning the simple truth that a soft landing makes for great nutrition is – surprisingly – for many an awakening! We need not believe our instinctive absorption is mismatched with bad news or bullying; there are other heroes and models of behaviour from which to derive equally persuasive yet contrastingly improving energy.
After a full day (beginning upon our uncharitable awakening at 4:00 AM this morning then taxiing drearily and unfed along the treacherously icy roadways to the hospital at 6:30 AM) I spent the remainder of the day until 5:00 PM (when we returned to the hotel for dinner) within the subterranean bowels and castleatted rooftops of the public infirmary, traversing an array of injections, scans, scales, monitors and endless medical enquiry. Yet upon moments of return, I rejoiced three revitalizing successes.
The evident accomplishment of the day was unquestionably the unparalleled victory of surgeon Dr. Lee and her extraordinary team of registered nurses, practitioner nurses, support staff and volunteers. After my radioactive scan and getting hooked to the IV bag, and while lying on my mobile cot beneath heated blankets awaiting delivery through a succession of automatic swinging doors to the surgical theatre, I marvelled at the industry of the maintenance operator as he assiduously cleansed the public and private passageways throughout my wandering view. The zenith of professional and domestic affairs aligned, an obvious impetus to the favour and comfort of the patient.
The second – though no less manifest – cause for unrestrained celebration was the triumph of our evening meal. Our server Valerie – invoking outright an unapologetic compliment of my piano stylings yesterday (including rumours overheard from others) – shepherded us through another delightful meal prepared by Chef John and sous-chef Mikayla. So sumptuous was my digestion of the healthful introduction that I shamefully succumbed to not one but two desserts! Embarrassment prohibits further engagement or enlargement. Though I suspect such weak accommodation in this ordinary arena nonetheless surpasses acquittal. Meanwhile I already anticipate returning to the trough tomorrow morning before our departure when Valerie (a longtime member of the service industry) advises she will arise at 4:00 AM to be on the job for breakfast and for which instance she has already sinfully promised me 35‰ cream with my oatmeal and brown sugar!
The third and final laurel of this highly unusual and much anticipated day belongs not so much to one adjunct but rather to a collection of several. Our hotel residence (coincidentally for three days) has been like home. I have failed to mention the chap whom I met in the sauna yesterday. Currently he is the Catholic chaplain of the local military base. Not unlike others whom I know he trained in theology and philosophy at St. George’s campus of the University of Toronto. But the serendipitous connection is that – stimulated by family pressure – he first undertook his law degree and ended being mentored by Bruce Tate Macintosh, senior partner of the Halifax, Nova Scotia firm and coincidentally a personal friend of mine from my law school days at Dalhousie University. By further application the adjacent restaurant favoured hockey on the multiple big screen TVs (a highly suggestive Canadian model even if conjoined with American teams of the NHL and junior hockey leagues performing in Europe). And of course there’s the grand piano.
While my flavourful account of events may sound at times flippant – and most certainly it is not – I will notwithstanding assert the similar true interpretation of the events to acknowledge that, with the magic of my own seasonable Magi, my inexpressible reason to be elated is that I have overcome an obstacle which is defeated neither by good people, good food or good chance. The ultimate success for me deriving from this marvellous day so kindly and generously shared by my incomparable partner and dear friends is the ability to say we are now beyond speculation. Armed with today’s investigative surgery and subsequent pathology (expected in 2 weeks and for which an appointment is already scheduled at hospital) I can count upon certainty, a feature in my opinion much to be preferred to the unsettled state of ambiguity or speculation.