We’ve spent the weekend in Hualien on the eastern coast of Taiwan.  It’s a trip we’ve been planning for a long time.  At first I didn’t want to go but then I realized it is the best thing imaginable under the circumstances.  We are staying in a very nice large hotel with a pool.  We can see the Pacific Ocean from our window and there is a breathtaking view of the mountains too.  We eat buffets.  We go swimming.  We relax together.

Diane and I are on the bed and Saga stays around.  We talk about all the good times we’ve had.  I try to talk about the brevity and fragility of it all.  Life is here one day and then gone for ever.  Seize the day!  All the three of us start crying.  Poor baby.  Saga is our oldest but still too young for this kind of stuff.  Only 12.

“Are you OK?” Beata asks me in the pool.  “No, Beata, I’m not OK.  But I’ll be OK when the doctors in Taipei help me.  Of course I’ll be OK.”  Beata is younger, 10, and she worries so much about everything.  She doesn’t like changes of any kind.  I try not to talk to her too bluntly.  Sounding upbeat, I almost believe it myself.

Yrsa I haven’t talked to much yet.  We had a great time traveling together only two weeks ago, but here in Hualien she is mainly playing with her Chinese friend.  She is running around like a fury.  I’ll talk to her later.

Rima is 4.  There is no point to talking to her.  She is blissful in her naughty four-year-old-hood.

This weekend was just what we needed.  It may have been the last few days of normal family life before all hell breaks lose.

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