It Takes A Small City

 Hillary Clinton used to love to quote the old African saying, that it takes a village to raise a child. In D1 and Joey's case, it takes a medium sized city.

They're away for 4 nights in SF, and have an army of us helping with child drop off and pick ups and of course babysitting. Joey's mother Jacqui is the general -- she's been spending all the nights there, with nannies. D2 is helping with a lot of the NephewUbering, and I am a mere private in this army -- I fetched D1 on Monday, and will do so again tomorrow afternoon.

D1 and Joey realize how lucky they are, and are savoring a few days away. Joey has work, and D1 is chilling with her dear friends Hannah and her husband Joe, along with an adorable girl with the same name as D2! We call her D2-2.0.

Wifey is headed up this afternoon to spell Jacqui a bit, and will go Friday as well, following a meet up with her friends that happens to be in D1 and Joey's hood.

Meanwhile, I've been doing a bit of unofficial pro bono work this week -- I spoke to no fewer than 3 clients about possible cases, explaining to each why they do NOT have cases -- at least ones my posse could handle for them.

One woman, a nurse, told me how her father had died from a clear medical error at a Lauderdale hospital. He was in his 70s and single, and I explained to her that under Florida law, when an adult dies from malpractice, only a spouse or kids 25 or younger can claim damages. The fellow was retired, and so his estate has no claim, either.

Another friend, a doc, told me about a patient he had who lost 4 fingers as a result of a delay at a public hospital, also in Broward. The fellow, now called Lefty (oh, that is so nasty of me) consulted with a lawyer who told him that given the damage caps, his case made no economic sense. I concurred, and told my doc friend I couldn't help him.

And the third potential client, a woman we represented years ago, wanted her mother to sue as the result of a botched pacemaker procedure. Even though we settled a case her family had for millions, decades ago, she went to two other law firms first -- her son had a lot of lawyer friends. Can't help her, either.

Meanwhile, at Villa Wifey, the decorating/updating is nearly finished -- our friend Allison is coming tomorrow for a few days for the last touches.

Of course, this means that Wifey says we ALSO need updating of our kitchen and guest bathrooms. Luckily -- no major construction -- just one new bathtub and new tiling with some new plumbing fixtures. Oh yeah -- we need our dining room ceiling painted, too, since it's such a "Regal space" and needs that.

Whatever. We've decided to stay for the duration -- might as well make Wifey happy. I'm happy when stuff simply works, and there are no leaks.

My California sister called with the sad news that her friend of 20 years died. I never met her -- she was 82. Sue says she "can't wrap her head around death." I reminded Sue someday she won't have to -- death seems to be quite good at wrapping itself around you!

I was blessed/cursed to be the only one of my parents' kids to be with them when they died. Dad died in my arms. Mom had passed probably 15 minutes before I arrived at her room -- I was there to kiss her cooling forehead goodbye. 

In both cases, it gave me closure, painful as it was. I guess if you aren't actually touching a dead relative, it remains somewhat of an abstraction.

Well -- hopefully the Reaper stays away for quite awhile.

For now -- I got grandparenting chores to do -- even as a lowly private!