Chapter 33: In the words of my mother, “It could always be worse…”

My mother, Darlene was diagnosed with osteomyelitis when she was young after taking a bad fall roller skating. She had to endure many surgeries and underwent long hospitalizations in Philadelphia. When all was said and done, she ended up with one leg shorter than the other which then led to many challenges later in life. In fall of 2003, Mom was visiting us in Ohio. At that point she was walking with the assistance of a cane and we were getting ready to go to church. Suddenly we heard a snap and she could not bear any weight on her leg. After much convincing (she had a lifelong fear of anything medical due to her childhood hospitalizations), Bob convinced her to let him take her to be seen. Upon xray, her leg was broken and with her history, the medical team was worried that the dormant osteomyelitis would be a concern if they tried any interventions. She moved in with us permanently in Fall of 2003 and used crutches to ambulate until she finally was forced to a wheelchair that she used the rest of her life. You may be wondering why I am telling this tale on a boat blog. You see, my mother, despite her physical challenges throughout her life, had a saying. Whenever someone was sharing a challenge or tale of woe, she would say, “It could always be worse”. Now sometimes when she would state this the recipient would reflect on that and totally agree, grateful for that reminder. But sometimes, this wisdom would be received with the recipient rolling their eyes and feeling like it was not the most helpful thing to say! (Not naming any names but you know who you are 😉) Because mom lived with us for over 12 years, we heard this reminder a lot. Since mom passed away, if I say to Bob, “You know it could be worse”, he often replies with a smile and says “okay Darlene”!
I have been thinking about this a lot as we continue the work on Meraviglia. If you have been reading the blog you know we have had a lot of challenges thus far, many that were not anticipated. This week we have actually made some progress on painting the repaired bulkhead, putting some of the finish pieces back up and even began the work needed on the mast. But as always things go slower than we think they will and new challenges pop up, it is easy to get overwhelmed at the work that still needs to be done before we can actually take her sailing. But sometimes when I am feeling especially grumpy and wondering if we have made a huge mistake, I hear my mom’s voice saying, “it could always be worse”. And you know what, she is absolutely right. I thought about that yesterday when Bob climbed our 60 foot mast for the first time. It is a bit anxiety provoking to think about your loved one being suspended 60 feet in the air by lines and a climbing harness, trying to do work with power tools in the hot sun. As you can imagine, it was slow hot work and after over 3 hours it was time for him to come down. He was frustrated by not getting more accomplished but in the spirit of my mother, he made it up and down safely, the work is not critical to our immediate ability to live on the boat, and we learned a lot about how to safely ascend and descend the mast (thank you Drew and Daniel!) So as we continue to work our way through the projects, I am hoping to hear Bob say, “okay Darlene” and I will take it as a lovely compliment ♥️