The move, part one

This is the first in a series about my move to Barrhaven.

In my new home

It’s been pretty well two months since I arrived here at my “safe enough” new home.  For anyone familiar with brain fog, you’ll understand how it’s all been a rather dream-like experience. It still doesn’t feel exactly real, but at the same time it’s just the way things are now.

I would not have made it here without the help of numerous people who made it possible… After weeks of refusing to commit to pay the full cost of moving my belongings from Toronto to the Ottawa area, the Ontario Disability Support Program finally agreed to pay (the little push from the Ombudsman’s office made a big difference). Ani J found some movers who charged much less than the others and could bill ODSP directly so that I didn’t need to play middleman, she and Bruce were at my locker in Toronto to supervise and help  prepare the truck for my things, and Christian and Michel were at the new place to help with the unloading (and my what a job that turned out to be for them, partially because the truck had to be parked so far away, and also because it was FULL of stuff, much of which I’d forgotten I had). I was told that the rain was heavy all day except that it stopped while the truck was being loaded and unloaded!

The property manager had shared my info with another tenant, Mountain, who helped me arrange for the weekly home delivery of organic produce, which was coming the day I was to arrive. Emile was generous enough to say I didn’t need to pay for it until the following week in case I wasn’t already there in time, and Mountain accepted it at her place, so it didn’t have to be left in the sun in front of “my” place.  Having safe food arranged gave me peace of mind, as it isn’t always easy to acquire.

Then, a couple of weeks later, with my other arrangements made, with a new grandchild born and settled in, my guardian angels Cheryl and Dave loaded up his pick-up truck and my car with my things from the cabin, and she drove my old car with me in it, to my new home. When we arrived after about a 4 hour drive, getting a little lost on the way in, as we didn’t have a GPS and I didn’t remember the turns and couldn’t make any sense of the map, the look on my face must have shown my shock at all the stuff piled up everywhere (instead of being neatly tucked away in the storage areas… which was of course impossible, since there was so much stuff that they didn’t know what to do with)…

Cheryl kept saying “don’t worry, it will be ok” … Then Mountain arrived with the food and Cheryl got to work cleaning out the new fridge so the food could go in it, while Dave and I tried to find places to move things so that I could cope here alone after they left. I was stunned, in a state of shock, but Dave was focused, strong, and able. With their help, we got  the boxes out of the main breathing areas, the other odds and ends out of the way, the little bedroom completely emptied for my cot to come in, the stuff out of the car and truck, the food into the fridge,  all to a point where I said I could cope. We then did a toast with a 3-way share of an organic bottle of beer I’d picked up in Minden when buying vodka to clean with, and they went on their way. I think I collapsed after. I don’t remember my first night here.

To be continued…

Part Two