Swimming

What a caption.
The matriarch's sister-in-law has gone back to swimming after the recuperation period for her breast cancer. She phoned to tell the matriarch. And, the woman invited my mother-in-law over. Now, I don't know who is more cruel: her or me. The matriarch is absolutely delighted to be going for a visit; although, her sister-in-law did tell her it would have to be when the snow is not a worry. It's February. I construed that to mean the matriarch would go for a visit in the spring. The matriarch interpreted it to mean her sister-in-law is back swimming, everything is normal, the visit could be anytime--like this Friday. Is the sister-in-law being cruel offering the hope of a visit or am I being cruel to mention its delay?

Either way, the matriarch is mad at me. Her sister-in-law is going swimming and is obviously out and about and the matriarch would like to be doing things, too. I don't know what she wants to be doing but I don't want to go out for lunch everyday. My husband is sick of fish and chips; the children are tired of lunch out all the time; we are sick of eating out. The matriarch doesn't seem to want to do anything else and when she goes out with me, she has to go where I want to go: she doesn't want to go shopping or to the mall or the recreation centre or to seniors' clubs. I don't know what the woman wants. And, to make matters worse, the doctor has not phoned back to discuss the matriarch's situation with blood thinners. He was supposed to talk to the eye specialist about, perhaps, renewing the medication; I thought the decision was going to be made in June and, really, we weren't going to worry about it till then. The matriarch is worried; she doesn't want her heart to stop. She kept telling me she knows there is nothing they can do--obviously, even though she knows she is almost 100, the matriarch is expecting the medical establishment to keep her alive. For all her talk about wanting to die, the matriarch wants to go on. I swear it is because her sister-in-law is out swimming. The matriarch wants to swim, too, I guess.