Join us here in The Bistro for a discussion on the entire Gamache series. Feel free to ask or answer any questions about any of the books or the series as a whole.
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3,639 replies on “The Bistro”
I’ve watched the weather channel on and off today. I realized this afternoon Millie would have to evacuate. We may get high enough gusts to bring down more of the older trees. A tree fell early in the Summer at Carol’s causing damage to the fence and destroying a storage building. Another fell from the same neighbor’s yard two weeks ago. She had to have the limbs removed. I looked today and another tree is leaning and will fall if there is much wind. It looks like it might fall in its own yard. A young family with a baby are renting as the owners had to go to a nursing home. The law considers a tree falling to be an “Act of God” and where it falls that property owner is responsible for the damage. The property owners behind Carol need to attend to their trees I think.
We may have some flooding in the low lying areas as usual but not much.
I feel so sorry for the people of Haiti. They have nothing and keep being damaged by storms.
To add to the drama in Millie’s life she sent a very quick note to say they are evacuating. Holding her in our thoughts and prayers. You too Barbara. Not sure if the storm will cross your path but it is supposed to hit Georgia too. I am glad Pete is on the other side of the country and heading home for a week.
Oh, Millie, I’m so sorry to hear this! I hope that they are able to quickly resolve it. I can certainly relate – I know for sure some day I’ll not really “have” my eyes anymore, and it’s one thing to know and have lots of time to prepare, and another thing to suddenly be plunged into this situation!
Speaking of Matthew, Barbara – are you anywhere in it’s path? I hope not – I know it’s mostly coastal regions, and I have a feeling (based on who knows what?) that you are more inland in Georgia… I expect maybe some wind and rain but nothing dire, but you never know with these storms… How I’d like to shake the members of Congress who have said there is no such thing as global warming! I can’t believe they really think we get “the storm of the century” every few years, but it’s business as usual!
Good thoughts to you, Millie. Hope your eyes are better soon and that you are safe from Matthew.
Millie wants me to tell you all that she is thinking of you but she has had eye complications after her surgery and she can not use the computer for a while. I told her we would be thinking of her and sending healing thoughts.
She talks about the process Gamache goes through of What Next which we relate to strongly in this house currently. She also talks about where the character of Amelia comes from.
Nice interview with Louise
https://youtu.be/mFgO4Tt1xAI
Julie, I think you are right. It is an unusual situation. LP has been so forthcoming and has shared Michael’s journey with us. Her beautiful words touch us because they come from her heart.
I do hope that some who have entered into the discussion will again. I enjoy seeing, that while we read the same words, sometimes another person can see an event from an entirely different aspect. I learn so much that way and it is fun too.
Barbara, so glad you are here – never meaning that you must feel compelled to post when you’re not “feeling it” – just happy to have you seated here by the fire with us. I, too, have wondered why more people have not been discussing AGR. I can almost see that since we all know each other here, they may be put off, but not on the other page Paul put up special for discussion. I halfway wondered if people didn’t feel like talking because they are wanting to be respectful of Michael’s death. In which case, I’ve been hoping it will pick up in a week or so…
The newsletter was amazing for its honesty and love. Not many people can open their heart, so raw with grieving, and share so beautifully so that others can understand. Holding Louise in our thoughts always.
I am not sure why others don’t join in. If they are elsewhere then I am glad they are enjoying AGR.
Back from Hawaii Barbara. It was a quick but lovely trip. We did little other than swim, shop for Erin’s formal dress and enjoy good food and company. I may have bought a dress and new swim suits as well but the sales drew me in.
We loved seeing Pete after four months apart. He is coming home next week for a longer visit.
Erin is back into study and has a friend arriving shortly to do physics so best I start my day.
I have dropped into the Bistro often in the past weeks. I go back and read old posts and Anna’s stories. I’ve enjoyed them again. I haven’t been quite up to posting myself.
I don’t understand why more people haven’t joined in the book discussion. I looked forward to those who have joined in the discussion of previous books to enter in again.
I haven’t been able to locate the posting that gave the link to another site a reader had set up. I wondered if people were discussing AGR on that site.
I really Liked AGR and will try to discuss some of it later.
Hope you are enjoying Hawaii, Anna.
How kind you are, Julie, to help your Friend.
Good thoughts to all.
I couldn’t believe the newsletter – so moving and loving! What an amazing woman Louise is.
Thanks Barbara. I tried to look but Internet was playing up. Will do now.
The newsletter is beautiful. She gives details of Michael’s death. A lovely tribute to a special person.
Peace and love to Louise.
What a good idea, Anna! I’ll pass it along to Angela. Just yesterday, new symptoms which of course, might not even be related, have arisen – very bad nosebleeds on a day when she awoke feeling worse than she ever had, almost unable to move her arm, as it just dangled uselessly by her side. Another friend has said these are two warning signs of leukemia, and I am certainly hoping that’s not the case, but I have long harbored the fear that this is something very bad. For now, though, Angela has been relieved of a lot of her worry, and is now cloud 9 for awhile.
Ignore my incorrect plurals and possessives. The iPad changes them randomly!
That is fantastic Julie. I felt we as a group were in need of a ‘something good’ moment and you have certainly provided it. How lovely that there are beautiful people willing to help despite their own dramas. We all know accepting assistance is difficult but it really does feel nice for those who wish to help. I have heard that giving is “selfish” because it really is easier to give than receive!
I hope your friend finds some answers to her medical issues. Doctors are not good with diverse symptoms that could be a number of things. When you friend has some energy see if she will write her history down starting with when she last felt well. Then put down what happened in order. It can help clarify the picture and it’s much easier to do by yourself in slow time than in a doctors office. The story usually comes out more jumbled with pieces missing because of the time pressure. Once she has the story straight and accurate she can better summaries it to be delivered in clear and concise form. Doctor’s are more apt to pay attention as the patient is direct and knowledgable and you have done the bulk of the work for them.
Something good happened. I actually have had a most wonderful thing happen. I have a friend in England (she and I have been on the same stitching chat group for a long time, and I met her a few years ago when I went to England). Her son is getting married in December, and last January, she decided she was going to make a small stitched item for each couple who attended the wedding.. or each single… and felt that this would be 40 little “somethings”. She decided on a strawberry – like this: http://tinyurl.com/gvnt39c Being January, she was sure she had lots of time, but then she fell ill. She is still very bad – the doctors can’t figure out what it is, but it’s something along the lines of fibromyalgia – lots of debilitating pain, lethargy, and malaise. Some days she can’t get out of bed. Some days are better, but if she’s taking medication, her head is all fuzzy and she can’t concentrate on anything. It’s been a nightmare, and in May, a few of us from the group decided we would help her stitch. Some people stitched one, and a few of us stitched 6 or 7 – and she managed 8. She has 30 now, and needs 4 more, which I am now working on again. But one other “helper” and I began to talk with each other about how the heck all the finishing was going to be done. It’s one thing for us to stitch the pieces and send the flat linen to her, but now, she’s got a huge job to assemble them all! As she just seems to be getting worse and worse, with no help at all from the doctors as to what it might be or how to treat it, other than to take meds for the pain, so I decided I was going to look into hiring a professional finishing service in England (just to see how much it would be). I asked a friend, and never got an answer, so then went to Jane Greenaway’s Cross Stitch Guild page (this is a business, not really a “guild”, but she does have a lot of followers, who pay a membership fee and get some patterns, etc. at special prices.) I asked Jane if she knew of any professional services that she could recommend and she immediately wrote back and said that she didn’t know of any, but could she put my request up on her Facebook page? I said yes, of course, and found all kinds of people emailing me to get more details. One of the first ones, upon hearing the whole story (something I hadn’t wanted to post on a public forum), said she’d get back to me after talking with her friend. Ten minutes later, she wrote again, saying that she and her friend would do it all at no charge. If I really wanted to do something, I could make a donation to her favorite charity, which is Maggie’s Centres (services for cancer patients)! The more we talked about what needed to be done, and I got through all the “are you sure?”‘s, it was all settled. Except, of course, that my friend didn’t know a thing about it. So now I had to talk her into it, because I knew she was still thinking that she could handle it, even though it was easy to see from the sidelines, that she couldn’t pull it off.
But imagine strangers just jumping in like that to do such a huge favor for people. In the end, it’s 34 little strawberries that need to be sewn, stuffed and embellished! A really accomplished needlewoman (like my friend) could do it in about 2 weeks of normal stitching time (that is – not all day every day, but an hour or three most days). These ladies are so lovely and so loving. And come to find out – after I shared my friend’s health story with the one who was doing the writing, she shared that she has cancer, but that she’s lucky because the chemo is only bad for her on the day she does it, so she has one day out of two weeks that she can’t do anything, and she feels so blessed to feel good on the other days, that she wants to do this for someone else in a bad way… I was floored!
I have, finally, convinced my friend that she should do it – up to a point, at least – she is holding back the ones she stitched and wanting to do those because then she can give them to the closest family members and truthfully say that they came from her hands and her heart. Personally, I’d go with the full service, and maybe do some embellishing on them all, and I would feel very much that they all came from my heart and hands… but I know how hard it was to accept help like this at all, so I’m not quibbling.
Now, wasn’t that something good?
Australians are used to long flights to get anywhere so the 9 hour trip to Hawaii is no biggie! Erin needed a destress break before her big exams. We have swum on the beach and done some shopping and she was studying in a hammock a little while ago. Peter has a much longer trip from DC especially as he was delayed in LA…no surprise. He arrives tonight. Haven’t seen him since May so we have a couple of days together. We go back Saturday. It’s wild at home. The entire state of South Australia lost power to n a huge storm last night.
I think it is hard Julie to face the prospect of the consequences of aging. I can understand even more why you want to be a condominium and make life easier. I am in a ‘enjoy every day’ mood right now as the future is always a uncertain place. For right now I hope everyone is ok and something good happens.
Yes, such an understandable thing. I have a little bit of it with my husband, who is 15 years older than I am. At 55 and 40 that didn’t seem such a big thing, but at 82 and 67, it makes us both realize I will probably be alone at some point… we both try not to dwell on it, though I also know that he has worked very hard to make sure that I will be comfortable. Still, it’s something that you think about. I can only imagine how much more difficult it is when you know someone is ill with a terminal disease. She squeezed every ounce of joy out of their time together, though, and that’s something that most of us aren’t smart enough to do…
Anna, you sound like you “just dropped in” to Hawaii – I know it’s somewhat closer to you than North America, but it’s not close… such the island hopper you are! I hope you are enjoying life and the weather is good for you.