A difficult day for my friend

The telephone rang this morning at 7:30 am. The caller on the other end of the line was my good friend, Judy. We've been friends since the 1960's when we met after our little family returned to live in Canada from Northern Ireland.

Judy was a vibrant, energetic, exuberant gal and often was seen jogging and swinging her two little children around in play.

Now, her poor body is ravaged with reumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. She wanted to make sure that I was awake and ready to take her to Hamilton for her check up after her sixth hip surgery six weeks ago. I assured her that I was getting ready and would be at her hospital here in Guelph in time to get her to the Hamilton Hospital.

Getting her into the car was difficult necessitating my lifting her from the wheelchair due to the severe pain but we finally were on our way. The appointment, though, turned out to be a very sad one for Judy and her husband. The news was not good. Many tears were shed. Her hip operated on six weeks ago is doing wonderful but her right hip, her "good" one, is not doing well and in six weeks, the "cup" that was inserted into that hip has moved up 4 mm into her abdomen causing a "gap", etc.

So, emergency surgery will be done, yet again, in about two weeks on this poor body. He guarantees nothing and even says that during the surgery, he might have to remove her complete hip and she will be confined to her wheel chair the rest of her life. And yet without the surgery, that is what will be the outcome as well. So, she's opted for the surgery to take place and if you believe in prayer, please say a prayer for my good friend, Judy.

After getting her back to Guelph late afternoon, I, too, was saddened by this news and took a walk with Geordie along the Speed River here in Guelph to do some thinking and praying for my dear friend.

Reflections Along the Speed River

Geordie rescued!

Last Sunday, my brother-in-law was driving me around Guelph in order to get some photos for my Guelph Daily Photo blog. John had decided to stay in the car but then he got out and so did Geordie.

Well, I was on the railway trestle taking this photo when all of a sudden, I heard Geordie crying at the top of his voice. I turned around and here was my buddy! He had slipped down between the railway ties and he couldn't get up and below him was the frigid waters of the Speed River. His hind legs were swinging and his front claws were all dug into the ice railway ties and he was just trying to hang on tight until I got to him.

Of course, we got him up from between the ties where he was wedged and here he is sitting nicely maybe contemplating his icy cold swim that he missed!

This was Geordie's first experience walking along railway tracks and to have his first one being on a railway trestle, is something else!

Skating on the Speed River

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Did you ever skate on the river?

Oh, how I remember when I was wee, skating on many frozen creeks and ponds. We didn't have indoor arenas to skate in and we nearly froze our fingers off trying to tighten the laces in our skates while sitting on the benches beside the ice. But what fun it was and how we enjoyed it when we finally got our laces done up.

It was so nice to see these folks skating on the Speed River late this afternoon. There were youngsters and some "oldsters" too and my memory went way back to when I used to do this. It was lovely reminiscing.

It was also interesting to see the huge cracks in the ice from where the thawed part of the river joins the frozen rink part.

Do you have memories like this from when you were little? Share them with us if you'd like. I love to hear memories of others.

Map on Google for this area

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