All the -ma in the world to Suzi and her Mom.

Mom's been out of town and doesn't have a cell phone, when she got back today there were messages from my aunt about G'ma. G'ma is in the hospital, they thought she had blood clots in her legs but she doesn't it's something else. She may need surgery. G'ma's been in the hospital since Thursday. It's a small town and a small hospital and it doesn't excuse what my aunt discovered today -- G'ma hasn't been bathed since she arrived, her sheets haven't been changed, and my grandmother has been lying in sheets that reek because she's having accidents. Aunt J gave them all hell and she said they were saluting her by the time she left.

Mom and Aunt J are coming to realize that when G'ma gets out she'll probably need to be moved into assisted living. She's very weak and it's difficult for her to get up and take care of herself and she can't remember so much.

I'm not really sure what kind of ~ma to ask for, not health because that doesn't seem right. But definitly strength and patience for Aunt J and Mom while they deal with their brother and sister. My uncle hasn't gone down to visit (which I guess is fine) but he also hasn't returned phone calls and doesn't seem interested in finding out exactly what is wrong with his mother. My other aunt will be going up there on a business trip (well near there) she'll stay 3 days like she always does. It doesn't matter what's going on she stays 3 days, because these trips are tacked on to the end of business trips and she doesn't want to leave her dog alone longer than that.

Yes, she's more worried about her healthy dog that could easily be kenneled or dog sat than her sick mother.

Strength for all of you, askye, to deal with your grandmother and her failing health, and not least of all to deal with family members who are acting weird.

Drew -- grrr. I just got back online and saw your post.

I'm back at my hotel now and done with things for the evening, so I've got free time tonight. Tomorrow I've got meetings all day, but will probably have time in the evening. I leave on Tuesday morning. I am back from Nov. 6th to the 17th.

Strength for all of you, askye, to deal with your grandmother and her failing health, and not least of all to deal with family members who are acting weird.

Yes, this from me, also.

Surgery~ma to Suzi's mom.

Sanity and everything going ok ~ma to Askye's mom, g'ma, etc.

Patience and strength to your whole family, askye.

Strength and peace and don't-strangle-your-relatives ~ma to Askye.

Sending vibes-as-needed to all bitches and those they love.

Wallybee and I have been discussing wedding dates. Initial plans: a wedding in Melbourne and a wedding in China. Only it turns out that it was actually two weddings in China, because her family and other groupies are concentrated in two different cities (Shanghai and Hangzhou). Furthermore, my office closes down between Christmas and New Years, so that would be the easiest time to swan off to a foreign country to get hitched as I don't need to get extra time off. (I've used up a bit of leave lately.) Apparently a Chinese wedding is a lot easier to pull together than those advocated by the marital-industrial complex in the West. Even two Chinese weddings. Nonetheless, my reaction was roughly "Wait, what?"

But! Conversations with the Wallybee's unofficial-proxy-parental-unit-and-landlord (I bet there's a culture with a single word for that) has suggested an alternative. In this version, we eschew the Melbourne wedding entirely, and go with a celebratory dinner instead. All I need to do, then, is work out a way to get my family over to Shanghai. (March or April, I'm not going to try that at Christmas.)