Some places just feel like home

Sitting high on my old-fashioned bed with the paisley bedspread and brocade at the Marshland Inn in Sackville, I'm reminded of my grandparents' homes when I was a kid. I can't feel Callum here . . . I don't think he'd be here. But I feel like I belong . . . that strange feeling of comfort I've felt sometimes meeting certain people for the first time. That's how I feel in this town. Almost like I did the first time I saw the Toronto skyline from the 401 in the wee hours of the morning, except without the girlish butterflies of excitement. This feeling is subtle, peaceful. I recognise little from other trips through here . . . yet, it all seems so familiar, so embracing. Have I come home?

Mom is with me. I'm around the corner tucked under the eaves of this ancient house. She has the bigger bed. Mine is barely a single and pretty hard. She's telling me about Grammie, her mother, and about how it was giving birth back in those days. Pregnancy was dangerous business and my grandmother had 12 children. Mom wonders whether there were any miscarriages and supposes there must have been. Women had to stay in bed for 10 days after having a baby. The 7th day was supposedly the most dangerous. I don't know why. Neither does Mom. With being bedridden that long it was necessary for someone to come and stay at your house for a couple of weeks to look after things. Another woman, a relative or friend of the family. Mom remembers people coming to their house when she was a kid. This reminds me of a short story I read once . . . Alice Munroe maybe? Another woman came into the house because the wife was sick and ended up staying, becoming the husband's mistress. I think the wife was ill though, not in childbirth. This is how Callum's mother died -- maybe even on the 7th day. Hmmm. The 7th day has biblical references as well, so that would fit in nicely.

Mom is remembering all kinds of things about old houses, her childhood, a time so cold there were icicles hanging over the beds -- this place is effecting her too, taking her back, reminding her of home.

Mood: Content
Drinking: Water
Hair: Light Auburn