Settling In

Jet lag continues to plague us all.  I woke up at 12:30am and never slept well after that.  Kaleb was up doing chores at 5am.  We were dogging it all day today as we all wanted a nap but we continued to keep moving so that wouldn’t happen.

Kaleb spent most of his day playing a new DS game, but he did manage to help Kory a bit. They got the battery charger going on our van so the van will start by Monday and they fixed a few flat tires on our bikes.  Details.  It’s all about details.

Right after breakfast I went downstairs to help Turid finish cleaning Tante Kari’s condo.  I spent most of the time there listening to all the gruesome details of both her mother’s death and Tante Kari’s death.  She needed to vent.

Unbelievably, her mother’s death was pre-determined.  The doctor in charge of patients on respirators, decided she’d lived long enough and he needed to pull the plug.  Her brain was 100% even to the end, which made it hard for Turid, but her mom had been on a respirator for over two years and initially they thought she’d just be on it temporarily.  When she couldn’t go off it, they told everyone she wouldn’t live more than a year, but she just kept going.  The doctor felt her quality of life was going down, even though every other day she was perfectly fine, but on her “off” days, she complained about not getting enough oxygen.  It was just horrible for everyone to count down to the day they turned off the machine.  She died instantly.  It was like an execution, in a way, but this is how socialized medicine works.  Patients and family don’t get any final words on the matter.  Sad, sad, sad.

On the other hand, Turid went on and on about how they took care of Tante Kari’s body after she died.  Kari was worried she would look bad in death so she made Turid promise she’d fix her up  nice.  Tante Kari has always been a fashion queen, so Turid and her daughter did up her hair and makeup, and loaded her up with jewelry in the hours after her death.  Kari’s boys went home and got the clothes they wanted her to put on so the funeral home didn’t do anything other than keep her cold until the funeral came around - another weird set of circumstances that just wouldn’t go over well in America.  They don’t embalm the body or drain blood or anything here, they just “plug up holes” so they don’t leak in places… eeew.

So Turid talked all morning as we cleaned, then she came up and had lunch with me and talked some more.  It’s all still so fresh, as her mom just died two weeks ago.  I wish I had words to say that would help, but I was glad to be a much needed sounding board anyway. 

Kory came down to Kari’s place and repaired a sliding door as Odd isn’t much of a fix-it guy.  I’m hoping he can do more helpful things for them while we are here this year, since everything got done in our condo last year and Kory needs stuff to do.  Kory did call the insurance company today so we’ll have insurance on the car on Monday, and he called the internet provider, so they’ll get that hooked up on Monday as well.  Whew.  I’m desperate for an internet connection.

Several relatives have stopped by the last few days to welcome us, but I’ve missed them all as I was out and about.  Cousin Bjørn loaned us a car for the weekend so Kory immediately drove me over to my favorite thrift store, just so I could get that out of my system.  I would have walked, but it’s been hailing/snowing/raining all day.  (We left spring behind in Skagit County – only to walk back into winter here.)  I didn’t buy much at the thrift store, but what I got was pretty cool.  I got two crystal vases and two crystal candlestick holders, a few handmade doilies and a reindeer horn that’s been transformed into a little knife holder for appetizer knives… all with handmade antler handles - a most unique item from Norway and I got it for five bucks.  I love stuff like that.  Kory just rolls his eyes at me but even he had to admit, the knife set was pretty cool.

I made some yummy portabella mushroom tacos for dinner tonight which were worth making again.  I love when I find recipes like that.  Then after dinner we took a drive down to see Tante Ruth at the old folk’s home, just down the street.  She looked healthier than she did last year when we were here and she was as perky as ever.  She was so surprised we came in April, as she was thinking we wouldn’t come before May.  Kory reminded her she said she wouldn’t be here when we returned this year, but she’s still around – 89 ½ and going strong – even though she’s blind and nearly deaf.  She was pleased we remembered she likes Aplets and Cotlets so she scarfed those down right away.  I took photos of old photos in her room while Kory yelled in her ear so she could hear him.

When Tante Aslaug went over to visit her the day Tante Kari died, Ruth was sitting in her room crying.  She’d been crying all morning because she said Kari had already come to visit her to tell her she was dying, so Ruth knew she was dead before she’d even been told.  Kinda gave me the creeps to hear that one, but I guess one never knows what goes on in the spiritual world around us, until something like that happens.  It was nice to visit her, as always, even though I can’t imagine her quality of life, just sitting in a chair, only with her memories to keep her company. (The photo below is of Tante Ruth on the left in the days she was living with Kory's family in America.  Kory is the one in the center in front of the curtain.)

We dropped Kaleb off at Philadelphia Church on our way home since they were having a youth group meeting tonight, then we stopped by Tante Aslaug’s place once we got home, since I hadn’t seen her yet.  She said she’d come by several times and no one was home so she doesn’t understand how we could be so busy already, since we just got here.  Good thing she doesn’t see what our life is like back home in America.

The funniest thing she said was that she saw Kaleb’s Facebook post when we were sitting in the airport in Oslo where he said we were waiting on our last flight into Aalesund.  She misunderstood that to mean we were taking the last flight out of Oslo to Aalesund, which meant we’d be coming in at midnight.  She didn’t hear us come in around 6:30, nor did she hear all the noise we were making while preparing dinner or having Odd and Turid over… and she said she stayed up til after midnight waiting for us to arrive so she could greet us.  We assumed she wasn’t home when we got in from the airport because all her lights were off, so we didn’t even ring her doorbell (she lives right next door).  It was a comedy of errors so we all had a good laugh.

Kaleb had a nice time tonight at church, reconnecting with some of his friends. The text messages started pouring in for dinner invitations once our phones got turned on, so our time here will be full and will again go by way too quickly, I’m sure.  I just hope we get adjusted to the time zone so we have our wits about us when we visit folks. 

It’s now bedtime and it’s snowing pretty hard, so we might wake up to a winter wonderland, which will suit Kaleb just fine, since we missed winter this year and he’s itching for a snowball fight.