AND another online visit...

 Yup.

Still doing the waving and talking extra loud in front of a screen - held by a double masked staffer at Okaasan's care home.

Gosh, I didn't even post in October. Did we have an online meeting at all? I don't remember.

Earlier this afternoon we had 10 mins again, which is mainly us talking to the nurse and Okaasan blinking a little with closed eyes as she is in her bed. I'm guessing the online visits will continue thru the winter now and well into next year.

New infection numbers have just shot up in this cold part of north Japan, as we all close windows and socialize inside. This region tops the nightly stats on the TV news. My students who work at a local hospital say it's all rampant again - thru the staff and patients - and actually deaths with Covid are up too.

Of course it's not necessarily deaths FROM Covid, but probably a reflection that so many people have got it anyway. One student said her 90 year old aunt dropped dead from a heart attack in her care home, but when they did an autopsy it was discovered she also had Covid and so the body wasn't released to the family for the usual funeral arrangements. That's awful, and so meaningless - the family could at least of had a viewing from behind screens and said their farewells. 

It was straight from autopsy to cremation.

Okaasan today? Looked ok, I guess. Not much I can say. The same as she always looks. We just hope she hears friendly, bright voices around her a lot and enjoys the bedside massages and body moving. Bathtime.

Sorry about silence in October. I've been very preoccupied with my own injury - the knee all over again, and trying to get back some mobility. The good news is that the chiro is a wonderful guy and I feel so glad I am going to him.

We've got me able to stand and do household things like cooking and washing up. I can garden for about 20 mins. I can ride my bike short local distances. This week I am teaching special classes at a local company, and with the help of a high stool and taping - I think I can do it.

Let's end on a happy note. I've done a lot of family history research online to use up time sitting down....and in particular exchanged fun e mails with people living in a small village near Cambridge - where my maternal grand-ma came from! Discovering that she was probably illegitimate, but taken on by the good man her mum married when she was six years old.

Here she is, in the front row at school and later in the early 1900s in England!!