worry | Mama Cormier

…..these were LH’s words early this morning

Today the parent council from our school hosted a community BBQ. After arranging for the delivery of the BBQ, and organizing the food and drinks, LH couldn’t help but worry about the attendance. It didn’t help that people were surprised when she reminded them that the BBQ was tonight. I have to admit that it slipped my mind and I had to call home to let my husband know that I wouldn’t be home for dinner.

The weather was perfect and when I went outside to lend support for the event the line-ups for food were huge. Luckily people were patient and everyone seemed to enjoy the party. The meat was donated by Maple Leaf Food and LH’s husband did all the cooking. A group of moms and dads assisted with delivering and serving of the food. Clearly my help in this department wasn’t needed so I was asked to be the official photographer.

So with my camera and LH’s camera in hand I walked about and took a lot of photos. Here are a few of them.

So it turned out to be a very successful event. Just goes to show you that if you organize a complimentary event “they will come”. Thanks parents!

….I imagined the worst

The school day had barely begun. I was in the library getting ready for my first class when AM paged me from the office. My neighbour was on the phone and had our dog, Frances, in her house. K was nowhere to be found. I had the call transferred to my office and spoke directly to N. Apparently she found Frances sitting on the front lawn and she was quite upset.

My neighbour on the north side of my house, L, got into her car and drove around the neighbourhood looking for my husband. While I was talking to N (my neighbour on the south side of my house) L returned and hadn’t found my husband. I described K’s normal walking/running route to N and how she could get Frances into our house. I got off the phone and waited for her to call me back. I waited and waited and waited.

It seemed like forever but in reality it was only 15 minutes. My colleagues encouraged me to drive home to find out what was happening. When I got in the car and started on the short trip home (15minutes) I started to think the worst. What if he’d fallen down the rocky edge by the lake? Maybe he’d suffered a heart attack and was lying on a path less travelled. I didn’t know what to expect when I got home.

Half way home my phone rang. It was my husband. He was fine, just a little shaken up for having lost Frances. He let her off the leash while he ran along the lake and normally she runs along side him and occasionally checks out a path here and there but always pops back up and joins him.

For some reason, today Frances lost track of K and when she didn’t see him she ran home. K thought that she had passed him at some point so he turned around and ran back to where the path ended. He found some other dog walkers and they tried to help him find Frances. When he couldn’t find her he was beside himself with worry. He finally decided to run home.

As he got closer to the house he could hear her barking. He found my two neighbours outside the house and Frances was already inside. Needless to say K was very relieved. The problem was that at this moment in time I didn’t know that he was okay.

Did he call me right away to let me know he was home? No! He went back to the park to let others know that the dog was safe and sound at home. When he got back home the second time he called the school but I had already left. He told me later, very apologetically, that it had never occurred to him that I would be worried about him. Hmmmm! What can I say? I love him and I’m relieved that he’s okay.