Sometimes I'll take little virtual trips via Google Maps' Street View. I'll stand in front of my old house, schools, the beach where our family vacationed every year when I was little. I remember the pine trees my Dad hung Christmas lights on in front of our first home. The trees are about 40 feet high now. Looking at these places brings back a different memory each time I pay a virtual visit to a given place. I enjoy the reminiscing that comes with visiting places from my past.
Lately, I've been making virtual visits to this place. It looks like it was a beautiful day that the Google van passed by L'Asclepiade. To the left of the house, there's a canopy with some chairs. Zooming in shows a woman sitting in one of the chairs. It looks like she is looking at the hospital, which is directly behind the house. I wonder about her. I wonder if she was excited or nervous for her impending surgery. Or, perhaps she has already had surgery and is recovering. Perhaps I've communicated with her online and don't know it. I wonder if it'll be warm enough to sit outside when I'm there in November, if I am even able to sit afterwards. I turn around and look out at the park opposite the house. It looks pretty. I wonder if I'll be taking walks in that park. I wonder what will be going through my mind when I'm taking them.
I then usually walk around to the hospital, which is right around the corner. You can see it in the picture here. It's a pretty nondescript-looking building. I wonder what it'll be like, what I'll be feeling when I'm walking into that building. I walk around to the side of the building down and see the wheelchair ramp coming out of the back of the building. I wonder what thoughts will be in my head, what physical sensations I'll be having when I am being wheeled down the ramp. Emotional? Out of it? In pain? Congruent? All of the above?
I'll fly to Montreal in November and all my "I wonders" will be answered. I'm certain that for a while afterwards, 908 Boulevard Gouin Ouest will loom large in my present. Someday, though, just as I come back to Loudonville Elementary School or Ocean Beach, NJ, I'll come back to L'Asclepiade. I expect I'll do so with fond memories, just as I do for other places from my past.
7 comments:
Places from your past and from your future! You actually end up seeing L'Asclépiade more from the Rue de Salaberry side, since you go in that driveway and use the ramp to enter the side door. At least in winter! That little tent thing is temporary. That picture comes from summer. :)
The house is beautiful inside. Lots of wood. The hospital is quite nice inside too. It doesn't feel as much like a hospital as regular hospitals do. And in both places, you will get such good care!
You had me looking up the house where I grew up. It's still there, although there's some kind of porch on the side now. The maple tree that I climbed is gone. And the railway tracks that marked the back of the lot have been turned into a trail!
It's fun to "walk around" with the Street View. And very cool to see old places. Yet another time-waster for me. :)
At a recent party with several friends one of the highlights was taking each other to 'visit' our homes where we grew up, and the schools and so forth.
oh, what a fun idea! I like that.
I did the same thing Faline! The ramp in the back/side is where you will enter the hospital. You will walk and each step will feel like a mile. You'll be smiling. Coming back you'll be in a wheel chair...and you'll still be smiling. I noticed the girl in the picture also, she's not really sitting so much as lying in a way that keeps pressure off the delicate parts. This is something you too will become an expert in. You will go outside even though it'll be cold, and you'll go for a walk that will resemble more of a shuffle. You'll feel more discomfort than pain, but you won't really be bothered by it. You'll experience a lot of firsts in that house, like so many other girls. You'll be carrying around a red donut pillow like it's your best friend. Then a month after you're home, someone will post a picture like the one above, and you'll remember all the magical moments that you felt when you were there...you'll smile, perhaps shed a tear, and remember how special this place is in your heart.
Thank you for this post, Faline. Funny, I hadn't thought to do this and had an entirely different picture of the place in my mind. How lovely. How perfect. And that I am planning on being there in the summer...
xoxo
Jen, your comment made me feel very happy and excited. :)
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