Friday, September 4, 2015

Friday, September 4, 2015

Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2008. Colleagues of Peter's sent Mattie this Edmonton Oilers (a hockey team) jersey and hat. They wanted to let us know that from Canada they were thinking of us and wanted to show their support during Mattie's diagnosis and battle. Mattie was in good spirits and after opening his package, proudly put the items on! Receiving gifts during Mattie's cancer journey were so important to him. They instantly brightened up his day and they helped us tremendously because it was hard to keep Mattie distracted and entertained each day. It got much harder as the time wore on. Which is why we will always be grateful to our care community for sending gifts and cards! They made a difference. 

Quote of the day: There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you've carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand. ~ Sarah Dessen

This morning I received a phone call from our complex's management who wanted to let me know that workers needed to access our deck and do construction on our large brick wall. I knew exactly what that meant because these workers have been staged outside my deck door for weeks now, working on the other end of the wall. Between the drilling and the dust caused by this construction, it is a daily cleaning job that I have to undertake. Each afternoon when the workers are done, I have what feels like an inch of dust covering everything outside. Including my plants. It is very unsettling and when they are up on scaffolding, they are looking right into our windows. So I feel like a goldfish, except instead of water, I have noise and dust to contend with!

In order to get the scaffolding inside our deck ALL our plants and furniture needed to be moved. I had six men helping me with this project because we have a lot of items on our deck.... as you can see from the photo above. The main reason I chose to remove all my plants from the space is that they would be completely covered in dust and I frankly did not want them damaged!

The question this morning became..... where to put all these plants? Someone suggested inside our home or on our balcony. I said no to that, and the next suggestion was throwing a tarp over all the plants. Which I also said no to given the intensity of the heat..... I would have dead plants! So instead we came up with an alternative place to store them close by to us.  

Right now our deck looks like a disaster zone! An absolute mess and the notion that this will be going on for a week, just to then have to reassemble all of our garden isn't making me happy! They chose the WRONG time to do this, especially when they had ALL summer to get this done. 

So I have that going on at home and on top of that I went to visit Mattie's tree today at his school. I went to see what condition the tree was in and what items I would need to bring with us this weekend as we want to decorate the tree for Mattie's 6th anniversary of his death. Each Fall we also plant bulbs and mulch the tree. When I got to his school, I noticed there was construction occurring. The playground by the tree is being totally remodeled. What I wasn't expecting to see however is the mess around Mattie's tree. From a wheelbarrow to other debris. Given there is a memorial plaque at the base of the tree, it would be my hope that people dealing with construction would mind the tree and have some respect for it. I wonder how they would feel if this tree belonged to their child? 

The problem is no one gave any thought to the significance of this tree or in my opinion how this would make a family member feel by seeing this! To me it is like putting stuff all over a grave marker. I do not see the difference. Needless to say while standing there, I took a photo of this disgrace and sent it to the school. I have been assured that these items are now removed and after we decorate and mulch the tree this weekend, a fence will be placed around the tree to protect it. I am just saddened that I am the one who had to advocate for this tree. It just seems very symbolic of the feeling so many of us have who have lost a child to cancer. After a period of time, people seem to forget, and unfortunately do not understand us or the issues that matter the most to us.