December 3 2018

Bobbie officially moved in with her mum (back home) in Crow Harbour. She called her sons, her brother Jamie, his partner and her friend Barb and they all went out for dinner at a large restaurant that was operated by the local community college. In the evenings the restaurant provided a sit down service but during the day, it was more a cafeteria style. The student chefs cooked and served the food as part of their training.

“Bobbie this is a great idea. I love the food here. Jeremy’s not feeling very good so he sends his apologies. I’m supposed to bring him some Pho.”

“Oh Barb, I’m sorry to hear about Jeremy. He seems to have a lot more bad days. I’m happy to be back home. I miss Cid City, but really I’m surprised at how few deep connections I have there after 30 years. I had work friends but I’m retired and now and we don’t have that in common. It’s good to be back with my family and you too Barb, of course.”

“I’m glad you’re here too, sis. I have been so focused on work lately, Jarrod tells me he’s feeling neglected,” chimed Jamie.

“Yes Jamie, maybe Bobbie can help you deal with things and change your focus back to your family, and me,” said Jarrod.

“Well, I have lots to keep me busy helping our mother get organized after our father’s death.” Bobbie didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Why don’t you and Jarrod come to Mom’s house for a nice Friday night dinner this week?”

“That’s a good idea dear, it’s been ages since I hosted a Friday night dinner.”

“Thanks Bobbie, we’ll be there,” replied Jarrod.

When they got home, Bobbie was still a little annoyed at how her mother had been neglected. After all her fuming, she decided the best thing to do would be to make coming to Mom’s more appealing. Clearly the death of her dad, Walt Sr. had been hard on both her brother and her mother. As far as Bobbie could tell, Florence wasn’t going to any of her board meetings or charity events.

The next day, Bobbie went through her mothers day planner (book), and put the events on the calendar with reminders for her mother. It was up to Florence herself, if she wanted to attend. Bobbie figured she’d be more likely to go now that Bobbie was around to drive her so the events were in her own calendar too.

Friday, Bobbie went to the market and bought the ingredients for that night’s dinner. A student she had mentored from South Africa shared the recipe and Bobbie had tweaked it to suit her own taste.

She had everything underway when her brother and Jarrod arrived. Florence was feeling great and looked elegant, wearing a hostess gown. The house was clean and the table was set. They came in the front door and Florence took their coats. Jamie was really starting to look like Walt more. Bobbie thought it was weird that he was acting like company in his own house.

“Hi Bobbie what are you cooking? We could smell it from the driveway,” said Jarrod.

“Aww, shucks” said Bobbie and asked what they’d like to drink. They answered and Bobbie dryly said, “Great, help yourself and while your at it Jamie, I’ll have a glass of the white that’s open in the fridge and Mom will have a spritzer with lime.”

Jamie took it in stride and walked over to the kitchen.

“Seriously, what is that Bobbie? It smells so good but I don’t recognize it.”

“It’s a dish that I learned from a friend from South Africa. It has peanut butter and tomato and garlic. He made it with goat but I use chicken.“

“I’m not sure I would like goat,” admitted Jamie, entering the room. “But I would try it.”

They had their drinks and after they had finished, Bobbie asked everyone to go to the table. She would normally serve this dish with spaghetti squash but opted for rice this time. She piled it all on a big platter and carried into the centre of the table. They dug in and seemed to like it.

When they were done, Bobbie had cupcakes for dessert and put some tea on.

“So Jamie, we cleaned out Alex’s things right after he passed when Charlie and Eddy were there and they were able to take what they wanted and that made it so much easier to deal with it all. Maybe after dinner we can go through Dad’s stuff to help Mum out.”

They all trouped upstairs and Bobbie set up 4 laundry baskets; one for Mom to keep, one for Bobbie, one for Jamie and Jarrod and one for charity. Walter had old world taste he had worn Harris Tweed Coats with ties and sometimes an ascot and had worn heavy Crockett & Jones brogues.

It turned out that Jarrod was the only one the shoes fit and he chose the black and the burgundy pair.

“I feel like Cinderella,” joked Jarrod.

The others were quite worn and they went to the garbage bag. Bobbie threw their fathers shoe polishing kit over to Jarrod. “James and I used to ‘help’ Dad polish his shoes every Sunday night.”

“Well it’s a good thing Jamie knows how to do that because I have no idea.”

Jamie picked a couple of jackets that fit him.

“Mum, you should take one of Dad’s jackets and get it tailored to fit you. You could wear it at board meetings.”

“Are you doing that with any of Alex’s suit jackets? You should take one of your Dad’s too.” Florence put one on and said, “This really floats on me maybe I can get a skirt too.” She chose a tweedy one that had some green in it. After the closet, the drawers were easy. Bobbie, Jamie and Jarrod claimed some heavily cabled fisherman knit sweaters that were made by their paternal grandmother.

Jarrod said, “These sweaters are so ‘in’ again.”

“They’re practically antiques. It’s nice that you will get some use out of them dear,” said Florence. She liked Jarrod very much and had always thought he brought out good things in Jamie.

“Leave them with me and I’ll wash and condition them for you.”

“Thanks Bobbie, that would be great.”

“You can pick them up Sunday. I’ll have them cleaned and you can help me swap out the living room curtains, Mom and got new ones.”