I called the hospice this morning and Donna said that dad woke up about 6:30am and was a bit irritated that the nurses had not woken him up at 4:30am to have his shower. Donna said that he needs to have his rest and they are not going to wake him early if he is obviously needing to sleep. He is getting a lot more pain and much more frequently now so they are giving him pain meds more often, which results in needing more sleep.

For the last week, he has been waking up closer to 5:30am but he didn’t seem to mind that. Today he was not too happy with 6:30. I called mom to tell her that when she goes to see him, she is to tell him that I spoke to the nurses and he needs to sleep much more than to have his shower at 4:30am. He’ll more likely accept it if I say that it’s reasonable than if the nurses try to tell him that.

So I mentioned that my cousin Indi came to visit yesterday and she’ll be staying for a few days. Well Indi has a special place in the hearts of our family. I remember the day Indi was born or at least the events of that day. Dad got a phone call to say Auntie Goomtie (Indi’s mom) gave birth to a baby girl – number 13 of her children – and she needed to get to a hospital because of excessive hemorrhaging. Dad went with Uncle Mulchand to Enmore and took Auntie Goomtie to the hospital. He brought Indi to our house so mom could take care of her till her mom got better. I was still in primary school but I remember she was so tiny and her cry was so quiet. Mom and dad got a crib for her and we took care of her as if she was our own personal little doll.

I had to run to school every morning because I wanted to play with her and walk around with her. Then at lunch time I would run home and wolf down my lunch so I could hold her. The same routine was done going back to school and returning home in the afternoon. By the time a week was over, we all decided that we wanted to adopt Indi and dad and mom said that they would ask Auntie Goomtie if we could adopt her. We were pretty excited that we had a baby sister because we even gave her the name Indi. We were pretty sure that Auntie Goomtie would agree but our excitement was short-lived because by the end of 3 months, Uncle Chocolate (Indi’s dad’s nickname) did not agree for us to adopt her. Needless to say, there was lots of crying, especially from me because besides mom, I was with her every spare moment that I had. She went back to her family in Enmore but dad would still worry about her and we didn’t stop hoping that she would come back.

Eventually I left for Canada and sponsored my parents to come to Canada and once again, Dad and mom asked if they could adopt Indi and bring her to Canada with them. Her dad didn’t agree again so mom and dad got their papers in order and sold their home and belongings to move to Canada. At that time, Indi’s dad agreed that dad and mom could adopt Indi but by that time, they were about to leave Guyana so they couldn’t bring her. We were very sad about that but eventually Indi herself emigrated with the rest of her family.

Over the years, I have seen and visited Indi in Toronto and I am quite proud of the woman she has become. And I still love her dimples. I used to love to look at her smile when she was a baby and I so wished that I had dimples that I would spend endless hours at school pushing the eraser end of a pencil in my cheek so that I would get a dimple. Alas it never worked but it was worth a try. So that’s my Indi story.