Back in the Annex

We have been back in the city for the past ten day. It feels very like a prolonged stop-over, however, as in a couple of weeks we will be off again -- to Puerto Vallarta for the duration of the winter. Last week was particularly intense: people to see, stuff to sort, and, it was the yearly Holocaust Memorial Week, or, Holocaust Education Week. I was able to attend four of the presentations as well as the class that I am auditing at U of T about the holocaust taught by Doris Bergen. It was an amazing experience to be, as it were, embedded daily in the experiences and questioning of this sector with not just some of Toronto’s Jewish people, but of scholars from places around the world. The over-arching theme of this year’s presentations was the question of collaboration, trying to elucidate more subtle distinctions between people who co-operated in some fashion with the Nazi regime in order to save their lives, and, people who collaborated actively out of hatreds of their own and/or for gain of some nature. Needless to say this is a vast but important topic, one that I made a few attempts earlier this week to write about. At the moment, however, my mind seems to be scattered into so many fragments that any organized thought eludes me. Perhaps once we are settled in Puerto Vallarta I will be able to write about the Holocaust Week presentations and things I learned from them.

In the next couple of weeks I must follow up all of the details that need to be addressed to put our place in order before we leave, to see those with whom we wish to visit, and, to ready the varieties of stuff that we will cart along with us to the south and sunny clime. One of the big decisions I have to make relates to what books I will take along. I’d like to be able to import my entire library but Air Canada has definite limits on the weight one’s baggage can total! We will be away for four months so I have to be certain that the things I select are the ones focussed on issues I especially want to think about. Well, I know that certainty isn’t possible. Who knows what directions one’s mind might take under different circumstances? Oh the problems that life presents one! Believe me, I am aware of what a fortunate person I am to even have such a conundrum.

In the meantime life goes on here in Toronto. Mark is very busy with a lot of new projects that have been coming in. He works with two other architects in an associate fashion. He takes care of certain aspects of projects and they do the rest. Even when we are away he is able to carry on in this capacity as so much of his work is done on the internet and by phone. This week I have been freer than last and am getting to some little nitty gritty details like sorting out the payment of utility bills for this place. The people who live downstairs will pay them while we are away and we’ll have a reckoning when we return. I have to meet with our wild and wonderful landlady to sort out some of the expenses that we have incurred since we moved here in March that are actually her responsibilities.

I should mention that it seems we are in the process of selling our long-on-the-market condo in Orillia. Our fine real estate agent, Bill Shaw and his wife have made us an offer we couldn’t refuse – in fact, we would not have refused just about any offer. I am so happy that this will soon be history. We had a tenant in the condo for the past year but she has moved on. Trailing the various expenses for this place behind us was not a feature I relished. The conditions to move the sale forward should be finalized in a week or so and the sale itself should go through in late December or early January. We purchased our cottage in Orillia 16 years ago right after Theo was born. We had a great time there on weekends especially when the kids were young and were with us a lot. When we sold the cottage and bought the condo five years ago, we had different kinds of experiences of the city and with the kids. Over a year ago we gave up the routine of being half of the week in Toronto and half in Orillia – mainly, I would say, at my instigation. Mark is more attached than I am to the place. Well, now we seem to have another routine: winter in PV and spring, summer, and fall in the wonderful Annex.

I’d like to write about one other experience from last week: on Saturday Mark and I attended, together with a host of other people, the funeral of Eudora (Docie) Pendergrast at the Church of the Redeemer on Bloor at Avenue Rd. We met John and Docie soon after we moved to Walmer Rd in 1993. They were founding members of what we came to call the Walmer Rd Book Club, established a couple of years later, and remained a part of it until the past few months when Docie’s health kept her from joining us. Docie’s cancer was a particularly aggressive kind: she entered the hospital to undergo surgery but in fact succumbed within what seemed like just a few weeks to her illness. The service at the Church of the Redeemer was beautifully planned by John and their sons, Edward and Jacob. It was a rarely seen mixture of liturgy, gorgeous music, and loving remembrance, truly the loveliest, most moving funeral I have ever attended.

In the afternoon the family threw a party to celebrate Docie’s life. It was held at the Gardiner Museum, a tribute to Docie’s work in pottery. The room was filled with people from varied corners of Docie’s life – meeting and greeting one another, looking at the photos from her history that were arranged about the room as well as on slides on a screen at the front. A period was set aside for those who wished, to come forward and speak of their connections with Docie and the things she had meant to them. It is amazing the things one learns or only begins to appreciate about a person at their funeral. It was a privilege to be a part of this group of people and to experience their varied testimonies. Docie and I spared more than once over the years about directions our book club was taking. Her propensity to take issues and people on was reflected by more than one of the speakers. Docie was a strong, multi-faceted, interesting, and committed woman whom we will miss.