I will now attempt to account for at least some of the past few months.
Immediately after moving to my present apartment, a lot of my time and energy was spent trying to settle in. However, suddenly it was Fall and then Winter, and I had a lot of other things to deal with.
For the past few years, my mother, who has just turned 99 years old, has had Alzheimer's disease. After my father passed away two years ago, responsibility for her care has rested on me and my brother. Since my mother was then residing at the Castel Royale in Cote St. Luc, more of the responsibility for her care was on me than on my brother who lives 400 miles away in Toronto.
One of the results of my living in the Province of Quebec is the incredible amount of bureaucracy that I have to deal with. This includes the act taking care of my mother. It is necessary to deal with the Office of the Public Curator. Here is a link to their website, to give you an idea of what is involved:
http://www.curateur.gouv.qc.ca/cura/en/majeur/index.html
Among other things, it is necessary for me to supply them with an annual report of how I am taking care of the finances of my mother. This report was just submitted to them at the beginning of March. Some of the work was done by an accountant, which made it a little bit easier for me. However, there is always the possibility that the Office of the Public Curator will decide to audit the report, and then I'll really get snowed under!
Now, for Part 2. The Castel Royale, where my mother was living, was designed as an apartment building for independent seniors who may need some assistance in performing some of the daily tasks of life. It was not designed for someone having Alzheimer's. It was necessary for my mother to have around-the-clock caregivers for her to be able to remain at the Castel Royale after my father had passed away. By July 2009, it was becoming evident that even this arrangement was not workable for much longer.
There are two facilities which are designed to care of people with Alzheimer's. One is the Maimonides in Cote St. Luc, Quebec. The other is the Baycrest in Toronto, Ontario. Because each of these facilities has a long waiting list, it was decided to put my mother on the waiting lists for both, and my brother and I agreed that she would be put into whichever of these two facilities had an opening first.
In early December 2009, my brother in Toronto received a phone call from Baycrest. A bed would be available there in two weeks, provided that my mother moved there as soon as the bed became available.
On December 29, 2009, my mother moved to Baycrest in Toronto. It was a complicated operation, involving an airline flight which landed at Toronto Island Airport.
This left the apartment at the Castel Royale to be dealt with. According to the law, the lease there could be broken, but it would be necessary to keep paying the rent there for the next three months. The three-month period would end on April 1, 2010.
So I kept going to that apartment about once a week in order to start taking papers, etc., out of there, and bringing them to my apartment. There were lots of papers to deal with, since my late father had not thrown out very much. But I was able to find a sufficient amount of stuff that could be safely dumped into the garbage.
Finally, most of the small things had been dealt with, and then the furniture could be dealt with.The report to the Public Curator had to be sent in first, and then a mover could be hired to move the furniture out.
On Monday, March 15, a moving van came to the Castel Royale apartment. The bulk of the furniture was transported to my present apartment, which has now changed from being almost empty to being somewhat cluttered. A few boxes of stuff were transported to Toronto to go to either my mother or my brother.
Finally, on Wednesday March 24, I went down to the Castel Royale and surrendered the keys to the Administration. Everything had been done. And that, Virginia, is why I have not written many blog entries of late.
