Wednesday Oct 17 2018

Charlie and Eddy packed up their busy families. They wanted to get an early start. Each grabbed a basket of muffins, explaining they could get coffee on the way and were ready to get on the road to Crow Harbour.

“I’m so glad you were here guys. It’s not an easy thing to say goodbye to Dad. I’ll be back in Crow harbour later this week and we can talk more about my plans then.”

Eddy said “I get that it was Dad’s wish to fix up the old motel but can you still afford to do it with no money from his shares.”

“I’ll be OK, I am going to talk it over with Trixie and we’ve hired an accountant who knows about estates and taxes.”

Jenny hugged her, “I’m so glad you are coming to Crow harbour, we can get coffee sometime and really catch up.”

Bobbie hugged all her grandchildren and said she’d see them soon. She stood at the window waving as they left. It used to make her a little sad when they left but Alex would always cheer her up by taking her out for lunch or giving her a new book or ball of sock yarn.

Her mother sat at the island with a cup of tea and Bobbie puttered around picking up glasses and putting dishes in the dishwasher. “Mom, can you stay with me a few days? I was hoping to take you back and stay home with you for a few days.”

“Oh Bobbie , I’d love to. I’ve been so lonely these last few months.”

“How can you be lonely Mom?​ Eddy and Charlie had you over for supper haven’t they?”

“A few times but they are so busy with work I didn’t want to trouble them. It will be good for you to stay with me for a while.”

Bobbie sat at the island with her coffee, thinking to herself, “So Mom’s been all alone in that house and and I have two sons and a brother that live less than 15 minutes away from her and nobody has figured out that she’s lonely. I have just lost my husband I and I have to help mom. We are going to have to help each other.“

Around noon, Trixie and Barb arrived and hugged Florence and Bobbie in turn.

Trixie looked around. “I think a wake was held here last night, this place is a mess and for a funeral gift (if there is such a thing) I am sending my cleaning couple over tomorrow. Let’s not do dishes ladies; let’s drink wine and eat left overs.”

Bobbie was thankful they distracted her from the ComCan stuff, she tried to tell herself that it was only money and it didn’t mean that much but a little voice still whispered that it was a lot of money.

They played Bobbies funeral/retirement slideshow and Bobbie explained they had really dug through a lot of old photo albums for some of the pictures.

“Alex’s Mom really took a lot of pictures and had at least six photo albums. One of my retirement projects is to go though and scan them.”

Barb was looking thoughtful and said “I remember you back then Florence. You really helped me sort out my stepmom and I was so lucky you guys let me stay with you in grade 11 and 12.”

“Well Barb, I made sure your Dad paid me a little so that I could give you an allowance. I was a little disappointed with him for not standing up to your stepmother.”

“I really worked hard with my therapist to forgive him. I had to, Jeremy still worked with him. Jeremy’s work with family law made him not want children. He saw many broken homes and said it’s always the children who suffer.”

Trixie had a troubled past too. Her mother Sally died from complications right after giving birth to Trixie, and her dad, Mark, Walter’s brother, passed away weeks later on a fishing trip. Trixie was passed around a bit and finally found a home at their grandmothers. There was trouble with her mother’s family and when she was old enough, she was sent to a British Boarding School, then went to University in Cambridge. “You helped me too, but you couldn’t help convince Grandma not to send me away.”

“I think she knew best Trixie. There was a lot of shit you were dealing with that kids should not have to deal with. You were happy at that boarding school by second semester anyway.”

“ I was pretty happy there. Grandma made sure I looked like the rich Canadian and I did give away a lot of maple syrup. Imagine how much better it would have been if it was now and we had email and texting instead of all those airmail letters we sent.”

“Grandma made sure you got home a lot and It was fun having a pen pal back then and I still have all of your letters, Trixie.”

Around 9:30 Florence was a little buzzed from the wine. She seemed quite tired and Barb offered to help her upstairs to bed. While they were gone Bobbie said, “I’m worried about Mom, I don’t think she’s over Dad’s death and having Alex die is bringing it all back. I want to take her home, I think it will help me too, and spend the week back home with her just to make sure she’s OK. I have to come back here to start packing up this house and I can’t face it just yet.”

“My finances are pretty up in the air right now too, I don’t know what I’m getting from Alex’s death benefit but hopefully it would pay for some of the motel renovation.”

Trixie nodded “We’ll meet next week and develop a plan.”

“Maybe I can get business loans to finance things until the motel starts making a profit. I probably don’t even need the money from the shares. I can have a pretty good life living with my pension and interest income after all, and Alex had some other investments that Alan couldn’t steal.”

“Well sweetie I’m not worried about you, Alex has very healthy investments and if you and Alex had a dream to be moteliers, who am I to stand in your way. I just want you to be sure it’s your dream.”

“Here here, I think it’s a grand adventure!” said Barb as she came down the stairs.“That Motel has a pool I can’t wait to try and maybe the restaurant could hire some entertainment. You and Johnny can sing there”.

Johnny Gold

Johnny Gold was the first big romance for Bobby. They met in late summer just before they returned to high school. He was effectively being exiled by his parents in Dublin who were worried about the ‘bad crowd’ that he considered friends. He was staying with his Aunt in Canada where he was to finish school. Bobbie was working at the local music store and he kept coming in to test guitars. She couldn’t resist humming along and eventually they started to sing together. Johnny (really named Percy John Gould), pushed her to sing with him in coffee houses, talent contests and even pressed her younger brother Jamie who added another layer of vocals and fiddle accompaniment.

They all thought that the Johnny Gold Duo (Jamie was still in school) was going to make it big and they planned to buy a Chevy van to take on the road as soon as they graduated high school. They even wrote a couple of songs together. Bobby played both a six string and a twelve string guitar. She performed in buffalo sandals, a peasant top and jean skirt (and sometimes a shawl she had knitted). She had long dark hair with heavy bangs and dark eyes. People said she looked like Linda Ronstadt. Johnny’s signature look was tight jeans, jean jacket and tees. He played the guitar but also toted around a stand up base.

As a back-up plan, Bobbie had applied to university. It was just expected she’d study at the university where, by then, both of her parents were teaching. Her Dad taught history and her Mom taught a couple women’s health classes to med students. She still kept her OBGYN practice at the office connected to the house. Her Dad really wanted Bobby to attend university and in an uncharacteristically authoritative moment ‘put his foot down’ and told her not to go on the road with Johnny. Florence agreed with Walt and maybe with a little relief, Bobbie ditched her plans to be a travelling musician and signed up for university, letting Johnny think that her parents were forcing her.

Johnny changed his plans too and continued on a solo singing career. At first she sent letters but Johnny couldn’t get mail as he was on the road. He sent her postcards, which she kept.

After her freshman year, on her summer break, they had a great reunion and took their old act to a few festivals. It was a glorious summer and Bobbie and Johnny were happy, the music was tight and they were starting to make real money. They were never involved romantically but had a close friendship. When she returned after her second year was she was pretty into him but she knew he was seeing other girls. Johnny announced he was going ‘electric’ like Dylan and was headed back to Dublin to hook up with some lads ‘who had something on the go.’

She sensed he was gone for good.