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He said he would.
She made him promise he would give it to her personally.
He promised.
Gisele was sitting in her cubicle when the man approached her.
“Mademoiselle Harrison?” he asked her.
“Yes?” she said.
“Here’s your lunch,” he said. “Your mother made me promise to give it to you.”
Everyone in the office gathered around.
The man was Quebec’s Minister of Energy and Resources.
Aline is “indestructible,” Gisele says.
But in her 80s, she began walking with a cane. Then dementia set in.
She moved first to a retirement home on Riverside Drive. She was a wanderer. She liked to walk to a Catholic church downtown. The police got to know her. One day when she was missing, Gisele arrived at the retirement home just as the call came in to the officers there that Aline had been found.
“Careful,” the officer at the retirement home warned the colleague who found Aline. “She’s tiny, but she’s feisty.”
The day after Aline’s COVID-19 test came back positive, her oxygen level was low. Gisele didn’t want her to be taken to the hospital. Aline has a do-not-resuscitate order. So she was placed in palliative care.
Then, of course, she rallied. Despite a cough and laboured breathing, her oxygen level and temperature were normal. She ate a full meal. Gisele did a video call with two cousins the next day. She pointed the camera at her mother.
“Look who is not dying,” she said.
For 24 hours after Gisele found Aline filthy and wet on Christmas Eve, Aline was treated like a queen, Gisele said. She was clean. Her room was clean. Staff brought her two dinners. The proper cover was back on the seat of her wheelchair.
New Year’s Eve brought sparkling juice, cookies, banana splits and hats for the residents.
But the outbreak has been difficult for Aline. Gisele now wears a mask, face shield, gown and gloves when she visits Aline. Aline recognizes her voice. But for the first time, she seems afraid.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Gisele said. “It’s really heartbreaking.”
ajarvis@postmedia.com
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