The holiday in Hell.

Thanksgiving has always been one of the few family holidays that I enjoy. There seems to be less hysterical drama and just fun times eating lovely traditional foods with family and friends.
Last year about this time my uncle and aunt, MrG and MsC suggested that they fly out from their nest in Northern Ontario, we pick up his sister in North Vancouver, and the 5 of us spend the holiday weekend in the beautiful surroundings of Terrace Beach Resort in the wilds of Ucluelet on the far side of Vancouver Island. Because I am the Trophy H and I did have a year to prepare I happily agreed and started making reservations. The resort was built by Jason Priestly of Hollywood 90210 fame and I managed to reserve the biggest cabin assuming that that would be the one Jason stayed in when he was home. It had three floors of lovely wooden luxury with large outdoor decks, Jacuzzis, fireplaces and a well designed and equipped kitchen for me to wow our guests with my special brunches, lunches and dinners.
My uncle and aunt used their carefully gathered air mile points to book their return tickets. His sister got the weekend off and MrD agreed to come with us because the resort promised Internet connection so he could run the empire while we all sat and chatted or went for long walks in the stunning natural surroundings.
That was what should have happened. This is what did happen.
Things went smoothly in the beginning. My uncle’s sister uses a cane and has some difficulty getting in and out of vehicles but with me carrying the extra luggage we managed to get on board at the early hour and made our ferry connection to the island.
From Departure Bay at Nanaimo to the resort in Ucluelet it rained the whole way so we did not get a chance to enjoy the scenery. We did stop at the giant Douglas fir forest called the Cathedral Trees for a stretch and a drippy camera opportunity. The trip took about 4 hours but we made it seem fun.
At the check in we found out that the cabin I had reserved there was no Internet connection because of the building materials used in the walls. MrD was not amused and made it known that I was responsible. Okay. I had to rent an extra cabin that did have Internet connection and I just whipped out the credit card with a non existent smile.
I got the keys and managed to get my guests safely to their rooms. It was raining the whole time. The resort is built into a rain forest with walkways and stairs. The lady with the cane made it all the way. The biggest cabin was the farthest from the entrance with the most privacy.
I put away all the food supplies I had brought from Granville Island Market, ran back to MrD’s new cabin to check up that he managed to connect and I dropped off my own bag.
I returned to accompany my uncle to the next town in the rental van so we could pick up some milk they wanted for their breakfast tea.
On the way to the van from the cabin we were passed on the walkway by a family with small children. My uncle and I stepped aside to let them pass and he slipped and fell. My uncle could not move or get up. I alerted my aunt about the accident. Someone got the message to the staff in the office. They called 911 and about 45 minutes later the ambulance arrived. All this time the rain never let up. We had blankets keeping my uncle warm and a sheet of plastic covering him to try and keep him as comfortable as possible.
The ambulance attendants assessed the situation. They put a pillow splint on his broken leg. We managed to get him lifted into a stretcher chair and all strapped in. Then we had to get him off the walkway, through the bush along a gravel trail and into the ambulance for the 40 kilometre ride to the nearest hospital in Tofino. All this happened in the rain.
My uncle was the only person insured to drive the rental van so my aunt needed to contact the rental company before we could follow the ambulance to the hospital. Many phone calls later and after heated chats with operators working in Delhi, India, we just gave up, said just make a note and off we drove uninsured to the hospital emergency rooms.
There was of course a lengthy waiting time before some one came out and explained the situation to us. My uncle’s leg was indeed broken in two places, below the knee and above the ankle. He would need an operation that could not be done at the small hospital in Tofino so in the morning the ambulance would have to transport him to the bigger hospital in Nanaimo, the city where we had arrived by ferry that was 4 hours away.
Okay.
This meant that we would have to pack up all our things at the resort, forfeit the prepaid two nights for the two rooms, drive the 4 hours to Nanaimo, rent two more rooms.
Okay.
The staff and owner of the resort were in top form and concern for us all along this ordeal and when I checked us out the next morning the owner assured me that all charges for our rooms for both nights would be cancelled and I was to keep him informed about my uncle’s progress.
We found the hospital in Nanaimo, I got us nice rooms at a hotel near the harbour and we managed to find some turkey dinner specials at a mediocre restaurant chain.
The next morning when we returned to the hospital we found out that if they did operate on my uncle there then he would have to remain in Nanaimo for about two weeks for the follow up. This was not an option so they put a temporary cast on his injured leg. My uncle needed three different medicines and a new pair of crutches. This being the holiday weekend some pharmacies were closed and after a wild goose chase in a city I was not familiar with we managed to visit 3 pharmacies and get all we needed.
MrD and the lady with the cane wanted to return to the city so we got them out of the way and on their way before my aunt and I started the ordeal of getting my injured uncle out of the hospital, into the van, get the van onto the crowded holiday ferry and back to Vancouver. We had to line up at the ferry docks because our reservation we had made was not valid for the time we got my uncle to the docks. We had to wait for 4 ½ hours to get onto a boat. My uncle could not leave the van. I won’t go into details about how he remained comfortable but those urinals the drugstore sells really come in handy.
Finally late at night we returned from our holiday to our condo in Vancouver and we managed to get my exhausted aunt and uncle upstairs and into bed so they could get some rest before the ordeal of flying home the next morning.
In the morning MrD and I got my uncle back in the van with my aunt and their entire luggage. We went with them to the airport. My uncle had to purchase a new ticket on business class because he could not fit in his economy seat with the giant leg cast.
Finally we said good bye to our despondent relatives at security and the airline handlers wheeled my uncle away with my aunt following along waving good bye.
I breathed a giant sigh of relief I did not know I needed. The stress had just built up inside and I spent the rest of the day in a daze.
Yes it was the holiday in Hell but in spite of everything we managed to keep our cool and bond in ways we surely had not planned.
Still it might have been fun to have just had a boring weekend with a book and some pate the way we had planned but the Trophy H, my silent reader, thankfully even at Thanksgiving, knows how to adapt.