The Tail of the Typhoon

We got woken up by a call very early on Friday; Ruth’s mother, who had been moved to a skilled nursing facility in the city a few days before, had died. We got up and drove over, joined a little later by Ruth’s niece and her girlfriend, to say our goodbyes. I had visited her there with Ruth a couple of days before. A stroke had diminished her substantially, so she could no longer speak or swallow, but she smiled when she saw me, and squeezed my hand when I sat next to her. These two actions were very reminiscent of being with my mother on our last couple of visits to England (though my mother was still able to speak most of the time) so of course I thought of her as well. A grave and well-practised young man came to prepare the body to be transported to the crematorium, and that was our cue to leave.

Friday happened to be my birthday, so I had nothing on my calendar, which was just as well. Ruth eventually slept for a few more hours, but I stayed up, feeling mostly like a zombie. We went out to eat in North Beach in the early evening, and went to bed even earlier than usual so we could catch up on our sleep.

My weekend was mostly free, except for a roam on Sunday afternoon. It was the first weekend in a couple of months where one of us wasn’t running around somewhere else – weddings, hospital visits, and we made the most of it, staying local except when I got on the bus to the Portola district for the roam.

It was a busy week in the neighbourhood though, what with Fleet Week – albeit with Canadian flying displays rather than the Blue Angels (and they were a few notches quieter, which was a blessing) – and the Italian Heritage Festival all weekend. I didn’t get to see the parade this year, but I did have to re-plan my bus journey.

The weather was the best of October, bright and still, warm in the sun, but starting to get chilly around the edges. I am aware that we only have a couple more weeks until the clocks go back. In previous years I weighed up the early onset of darkness in the evenings against the chance to get out on my bike a little earlier, but these days, even though I am still mostly awake early, I haven’t managed to get out before seven for a few weeks.

As I write this on Monday afternoon, the skies have turned dark and a prodigious amount of rain has fallen, as forecast, from a storm that has crossed the Pacific. Winter is not far away after all. It is a good afternoon to read and drink tea.