Institutionalized: 1940

Back Home from Our Trip to Toronto

We have been home for a few days now. It is nice to be home. The hustle and bustle of Toronto wore both Greg and I out. We had a fantastic time. It was great to see our friends again and meet new ones too.

After meeting Craig, he gave me his address in Toronto. He told us we could write him anytime.

I love this time of year. It is very warm. I like feeling warm instead of freezing cold. I do prefer summer rain to spring rain because it is warm rain.

It has been months since I have heard from my mum. Ric told me that he received a letter from her while Greg and I were in Toronto. When he picked us up from the train station, he gave the letter to me. I read the letter once we arrived at our place.. Once we got home, Ric offered to help us unpack. We accepted his offer because I was exhausted that I just wanted to go to sleep.

The letter from my mum said that she has not heard from me in a while. She was wondering what I have been up to. She also was wondering how Canada is treating me after almost ten years in the country. While reading the letter, I had tears in my eyes. I could not figure out why I was crying because it has not been that long since I have seen my mum last. It has only been two years. Not as long as when I was institutionalized in 1940. I still do not know why I cried while reading my mum's letter. When Greg saw me crying he asked why. I told him that I did not know. His conclusion is that I was really happy to hear from my mum again. I totally agreed with this and hugged him.

A few months after out trip, we received another letter from our friends. The letter said that they were done racing for the season. Dario said that he and Ashley were going to be back in Tennessee for a few weeks. After that, they are heading to Scotland to spend the holidays with his family. Tony told us, he was heading to Brazil for the holidays. Patrick told us that he is going to spend time with Alex Tagliani because they will be teammates in the upcoming season. They also had great news to tell us that was that was the reason for the letter. The great news was that in the upcoming racing season there will be a race in Vancouver. Once we read that, we smiled at one another. They told us that there was no date for the race as yet. They will write to us as soon as they received the information. The final remarks were that they wished us a great holiday and hoped to see us at another race next racing season. After reading the letter, we decided to write a letter to Dario. Of all our friends, he was the only one who gave us his home address. Greg spoke while I wrote the letter. We said that we are looking forward to hearing from him again and the others again. We wished him a great holiday season. Finally we told him that we were looking forward to having a race at home. We both signed it. I mailed it the next morning. The one thing I forgot to mention i wrote in the letter was that I asked to give a letter to the Royal Postal Service for my mum.

A few weeks after sending the letter, I received a personnel letter from Dario. It the letter, he said it was not a problem for him to send the letter to my mum. After reading the letter, I wrote a thank you note to Dario. I enclosed the envelope with the letter to my mum in it. I will mail it the morning.

Fall has now turned into winter. It is getting colder and the holidays are around the corner once again. I just sent my mum a Christmas card. Greg and I are going back to Maple Ridge for Christmas. Ric has invited us to stay for a few days. I decided to write the story of how Greg and I met to him. Also how much he means to me. I think he will be touched to hear how I feel when I am with him. I will write something to Ric saying how much I appreciate him. Also that he is very accepting of me over the years I have been in Canada.

It is now December once again. Christmas is weeks away. I am not worried about getting any material presents. All I care about is being with the people that I love. Being with Greg's family is the best part of the holidays because they are the only family I have in Canada. I do wish to spend a holiday with my mum, but I know it will not happen because she is so far away.