Hello, again; I hope you'll forgive the lateness of my letter this month. December is, after all, a busy one given that I have two daughters and their associated relatives by marriage to visit over the Holidays. First off, I visited Andrea, Jeff and Sean (who's now a goalie in midget hockey) in Halifax; it's too bad that it wasn't just for pleasure. I wanted to speak with her about how she handled her miscarriages so I could sort of help Deanna and Michael deal with their recent sadness; it might not mean much but it would help them a little to know that they are not alone. Not, of course, that that was a problem this year. Elizabeth, Anthony and April stayed over to give them a hand with preparing Christmas dinner as well as being sympathetic ears in their time of need. One of the topics that was discussed was, as you know, life in the conditional tense. You might have heard about how Mike used his journalistic talents to ferret out what would have happened if he had married his high school love interests; what seems to have been missed was that Deanna asked the same question about Perry Fletcher. It is not much of a consolation to learn that her life would not be really too much different if she'd married him instead; she'd still have a loopy mother-in-law filled with self-importance and negativity, a goofy father-in-law with a childish hobby (collecting Star Wars paraphernalia), a husband reeling from the recognition that his parents were hypocritical creeps with entitlement issues and a pair of sisters-in-law who were learning to not resent that fact. Why, she'd even have an Anthony who has no idea what makes the Fletcher's April (Megan, in this case) tick to puzzle over. She'd just be going through all this in the Seattle area right now. It's like how in the latest Star Trek movie Nero messed with the past but Kirk and the other six people still ended up serving on the Enterprise. Michael seems to have found out the same thing about Martha and Rhetta so it all evens up. As Deanna told you, Meredith and Robin are dealing with all of this as well as can be expected; they're saddened by the loss but they aren't going to let it get them too down. That wouldn't help anyone. Speaking of Robin and the phrase "as well as expected", that's also how his treatment is going; he's got a long way to go but he will, I pray, get there. I just wish he wouldn't have asked if Elly's float valve was busted or something; it's nice that he has an interest but comparing a sick woman to a backed-up commode is sort of tasteless.
Well, at least he's also able to handle the remote issue of what happens to Crazy Granny better than the adults are; that's something that'll make be feel better about heading back to Halifax after New Years'. In any event, Wilf and I are heading to the airport so we'll have to get back to you next month. Here's hoping that your New Year is a good one.
Yours,
Mira.