Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Feel free to skip it...

Sort of a strange day for me.  The 5th of May is the anniversary of my mother's death and I take pride in somehow managing to avoid thinking about it every year.  Somewhere around the 8th, I usually think "Whew, 'forgot' about it again this year, woohoo!"  But this year?  Have had it on my mind for the past couple of weeks, and I don't know why - I don't WANT to think about it because she wouldn't approve.  Every year on her birthday in November I get dressed up and go drink posh cocktails in her memory, which she would be totally on board with, but the anniversary of her death?  No way - she would want me to 'forget' every year.  We're Scottish Presbyterians, we're all about the denial!

Anyway, this year I couldn't quite get it out of my head and I don't know if it's because I haven't yet built up the support network that I have in both London and Toronto, but today was nevertheless okay.  My lovely friend Mr V advised me to to go to church and light a candle, which I did (risking getting my pagan ass blown to smithereens by a righteous thunderbolt from the heavens - luckily that didn't happen), sobbed my eyes out and then went out and had cocktails.  But that?  My Ma would approve of.  Anyway, my sweet friend Miss RA was free this afternoon and we managed to find a bar that started happy hour at 3pm (ahhhhhhhh!) so we stayed there for a couple of hours before moving on and finding another spot where her boyfriend, the adorable Monsieur P could join us.

So it was a crappy day, there's no way around it.  But I got through it with a little help from my friends, and let me tell you -  as an expat, when you realize that you have made good friends like that?  You're doing pretty well...

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