Last Week of Fall Camp

The last week of fall camp started with a party and ended with a party.

One of my niece’s came and brought her mother and I to Louisbourg. The scenery was beautiful. I didn’t know that there was a lighthouse here.

As you know, one of symptoms of MSA is bladder control, which I do not have. So, I have a catheter, which my niece and I took the opportunity to name it Cathy.

 We drove around and took lots of pictures of the fortress. Some of oldest rocks are there.

A few days later, one of my brothers invited us over for dinner. When we arrived, we saw that he had made a ramp to help me get inside. It was pretty steep, so I was nervous to go up, but I made it.

The dinner was great. We reminisced about a product called Jets. My brother had found the bottom of the container. This brought back memories of when we were kids and the used them to fill up their dump trucks and I would tell them to fill up the potholes in the driveway. We had lots of fun and laughs.

After dinner, I had to go back down the ramp. My brother knew I was nervous and he told me he would take me down the ramp backwards. He reminded me that only his hands were holding the wheelchair and when we got to the bottom I noticed we were both wearing our purple MSA bracelets. He said to me, “Luckily for you, today is bracelet day and you can go on that ride as many times as you want.”

Another night, we went to my sister’s friend’s house. We had a nice dinner of haddock, potatoes and veggies. For dessert, we had bread pudding.  His son, who has cerebral palsy, was worried about me that night. His other son showed me his carvings that he had made; one was a boat with the number 13 on it. It was a late night, but we had a good time.

The last event before we left was one of my niece’s birthday. Everyone came to say goodbye to us. As usual, there were lots of stories, laughter and love.

Fall Camp - Baddeck

On this portion of the trip, I was with the baby of the family and the oldest.  My baby sister took the day off and drove us to Kelly’s Mountain.

Along the way, we took pictures of the Giant Angus MacAskill’s grave. 

We took the Englishtown ferry and took pictures on the other side.  The leaves were beautiful.

We then drove to Baddeck. We had lunch at the Bell Buoy. It was so good. When we got the menu, the first thing I saw was the lobster salad on a sandwich with chowder. When I saw it, it reminded me of a story my Hunny likes to tell. Once when we were on vacation, about five years ago, we were at a sandwich chain store and they had a lobster sandwich on the menu. Hunny suggested we get it, but I did not want to spend 20 bucks on it, even though we were on vacation. I think I will never live this down. Needless to day, when I saw the lobster salad on the menu, I felt that I had to have it. I ordered it, and when it arrived, I took a picture and sent it to Hunny. We had a good laugh. The sandwich was on homemade oatmeal bread and there was so much lobster! There was also seafood chowder, blueberry pie and ice cream. What a treat!

It was shortly after this that I received an email from one of my sisters in Ottawa. She told me that she entered me into the Empire Theatres contest called “The Incredible You” to bring awareness to MSA. I had been chosen as a possible winner. This was great news.

This was a lovely way to spend the day. 

Fall Camp - Karaoke Style

We were still at fall camp and lots of laughs and lots of memories. 

I had changed locations. This house belongs to the sister was next oldest to me. Her house was all on one level, so, it was easier to get around.  Due to the MSA, it is much more difficult to get around in someone else’s home than at my own. Our home has been adapted to make it easier for me. My family made a greatly appreciated effort to try to make it comfortable for me.

During our stay, we had lots of visitors from morning until night. It was a lot of fun.

One of the visitors was cute and adorable and I wanted to take him home with me. I even had his name picked out. Every time I held him, I called him Juneau. He was Alaskan Husky, after all. But, I knew that he would be too big for a condo. So, while I was there, I pretended that he was my dog.

One night, all the girls plus one got together for a karaoke night at this sister’s house. We had a blast! My nephew took a turn at the microphone. He said, “I’m gonna warn you first, this song is really, really loud” and then he broke out into Who Let the Dogs Out. We all laughed. We had some more good laughs when two of my sisters sung “You’re not woman enough to take my man” to each other.  They really put on a show.

We shared lots of good times and memories at this sister’s house and one of the things that stayed with me was from quote I saw in her house, “Families are tied together with heartstrings,” and ours truly is.

Fall Camp - Lighthouse Girls Visit

      

     
While at fall camp two of my dearest childhood friends came for a visit. I know they were so shocked to see the damage MSA has done so far, I know there is still so much to come. While growing up I was always the strong and tough one.  

      

 We spent so much time together when young.  We played,explores and laughed through childhood as we grew up together. Their late father was Low Point Lighthouse Keeper and their mom is an amazing dedicated wife and mother of four and most times me.  Their mom fixed many injuries, egos, and a great cook.. Their place was my home away from home. They took me on many family drives, circus events and so much more.

       Their dad took us up in this Lighthouse quite often, I remember nervously   climbing the three flights of stairs, passing the floating light on our way to the catwalk; we felt on top of the world here. This light floated in mercury, which would be changed once a month. This was before we knew how bad it is for our health, we often played with mercury and when they came to change this they would dump it in the ground I have often wondered if this was linked to the MSA?

  

        Our favorite memory is when their dad would mow the lawn and we would run around in our bare feet. Our feet would be all green and we went to beach to clean them. We had lots of laughs remembering the good ole days!