Life's twists and turns

Act Five is usually a time of resolution and reconciliation. It is the culmination, the consequence of all the earlier choices, a time for reflection. A wrapping up time, in other words. If there are reversals of fortune or of direction, they are insignificant, a blip in the grand scheme of things.

Catherine and I were going to defy this normal pattern and to write our own life script. The trajectory of our own lives would defy any patterns that might ever have existed. We had already defied probability by living together for almost thirty years, thrown sand in the eyes of my relatives who knew “such things” as our marriage could not survive. Now, at an age when most people with the choice are hunkering in for the duration, we were leaving everything familiar and moving to a city where we knew nobody.

We jumped right into the creative life of the city. We got close to people connected with the Kelowna Arts Council, attended concerts and poetry readings whenever we could, sometimes three or four times a week. In our effort to fit in, we were almost playing out another version of Act Two.

This has all contrasted with a backdrop of the Charcot foot that hit Catherine early in our stay here. It has preoccupied us since it was first mis-diagnosed as a toe infection late last year, and it has played an increasingly obtrusive role in our lives ever since.

We got blindsided still further on Monday, when x-rays showed that Catherine’s ankle was fractured. It was an especially painful surprise because within the past few weeks she had moved from having to use a knee scooter to moving forward on two feet with the help of a walker, and finally to unaided walking. This lasted only a few days before she noticed her ankle protruding more than it should.

It wasn’t until a recent visit to Emergency that we heard her foot described as osteoporotic. I hate the word; it reminds me of pock-marked driftwood, drained of life after months of being bleached in the sun. On top of that, my mother had osteoporosis late in life. One night she choked on some food and the Heimlich maneuver was not an option because a vigorous yank on her body could have broken some ribs. We called 911, and firemen came to resolve the problem. Luckily, the food had dislodged itself before they arrived, and they did nothing more in the house than accept a drink of water.

Osteoporosis and Charcot foot are telling us that the future still holds some surprises – but that we should not be surprised when they materialize.

Somewhere in Act Five of a play, the characters left on stage accept the reality that has unfolded. Somebody reflects on the events that have just passed and the dramatic world returns to what is thought of as normal life. But that time has not come for us. We are not at a place to stop and rest and reflect. Our reality is still developing and it is too soon to say “Oh, so that’s the way it’s going to be.”

This is truly a script unlike any other.