Have a safe journey

Yesterday my mother in law travelled a short 220 km on a greyhound bus to join us for the festivities. Ordinarily I would have rented a car and driven over to pick her up, but she insisted that she would be ok on the bus. Well the bus must have been on its last legs, that or the heater had died and the driver had tried some imaginative plumbing to fix the problem, because she said that the fumes from the engine were blowing into the bus through the heating vent. The stench of diesel eventually, and inevitably, made her sick, fortunately (if you can use that word) she was only a short distance from her destination, and so didn't have to sit on the bus much longer, but at her age this was a very distressing thing to happen. I have often sat on buses where the fumes from the exhaust seem to be blowing directly into the passenger compartment, and I have never understood why that would be. You would think that the bus companies would want to make sure that their passengers were comfortable, more specifically that they didn't get sick! But I guess profits override all other concerns. She is ok, she was fine by the time she got to the house, ate a huge dinner and went to bed to read her book, so no long lasting damage was done. Other than to her pride, and I suspect to her dignity. I think she is realising that she is getting older and is no longer able to do the things that she used to be able to do easily. We are wondering if she is eating properly too, so we will look into meals on wheels, and getting a maid to come in and clean the house for her every so often. It is a fact of life that we grow old, and it seems increasingly more common for families to post old people in homes, but in this instance it would be the worst thing to happen, because my mother in law is very independent, and she likes her own space. As long as she is able to, we want her to stay in her apartment building, where all the old ladies have lived for years, they have known each other for 30 years, and look out for each other. Hopefully my papers will come through in the not too distant future and we will be able to drive over to see her once a month or so. So if you are into that sort of thing, could you pray for us? Put in a good word with the man upstairs. Thanks.

If you are travelling to be with your family this year, please take care, arrive in good shape. And have a good time with the people you are with, because you don't know how much longer it will last.