Back Surgery in 1964

Donald is currently under the knife having a cervical discectomy and I am not capable of doing any real research while I wait for news, but I was thinking of these photos of my grandmother, so I thought I would share.

I don't know the details of the procedure, but my maternal grandmother, Marjorie Elizabeth Dean, had back surgery at Montreal General in 1964. The recovery was long, involving a lot of follow up, and my grandparents lived about a three hour drive from Montreal, so they rented an apartment "in town" for the duration. My mother doesn't remember how long her actual hospital stay was or why my grandfather brought a camera to the hospital one day, but I'll never be mad about documentation of life events like these.

The poor thing is wearing a full body cast, as she would for months.

Just casually enjoying a cigarette in her hospital bed!

Poor grandma. She had to hang like this for hours at a time!

My parents had not even met when my grandmother had this procedure but I did unfortunately visit her at this very hospital over Christmas sometime in the 80s. She was at the airport, on her way to visit us, when her rolling suitcase, which had a strap back then, not a handle, hit some ice, went airborne and knocked her down so hard that she broke her pelvis. Yikes!

Mum and I ended up flying to Montreal and spent that Christmas at our cousins' apartment in the city while they were in the mountains. Thankfully, although she was 80 or thereabouts, she did go on to make a full recovery then as well.

I'm still waiting for a call from Donald's surgeon, so I'm going to count my socks or something, since its quite cold here today, and our dog does not want to go for another walk.  Stay safe out there!