For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 29, 2021

Oh Jim, you said that because you don’t want to uproot and move to a new place at your age. You want to stay in a familiar place. You also know your wife is not well which means moving would be hard on her. These are not things Elly thinks about, though. She is thinking her mom is not well and needs assistance and when a parent is not well, the children want to spend as much time as possible before the parents pass on. It would be a whole easier if Elly just moves her family to Vancouver, but she is thinking John has a practice back in Thunder Bay and would not uproot him and have him begin over with a new practice in a new city. John wins and he doesn’t even know.

My maternal grandparents were born, raised, married, retired, and died in Arizona. Their children were born in District of Columbia, Chicago, and Santa Fe. Did they have a military father? No; he had a career in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (his last transfer — where the children also graduated high school — before retirement was in Phoenix).

It’s odd that this conversation is just between Elly and her father. There is no sense that she is trying to convince her mother of anything, just her dad. I did not get the sense that Elly’s mother had reached that level of incompetence where you would not include her in this conversation.

The oddest line here is in Panel 3: “If you looked the place over, you might want to stay!” What in the world is Elly talking about? She had April crammed into Elizabeth’s room so the only space available is the rec room. If Jim and Marian saw that place, they would want to stay for sure….in their own home.

But sir, moving in with the Pattersons and have them take care of your needs will at least partially pay you back for the sacrifices you made for Ellie when she was growing up.

My mother died suddenly when my oldest was only a year old. My parents were older when I came along (dad was 47) and I was a bit older when I had my first child. My dad never really recovered from losing my mom and did stay with us the first year after she’d died, but he didn’t want to be there, he wanted to be on his own. I tried often to get him to come stay with us, we had the room, but he wanted to be where he knew. I could have used a pry bar and he’d still have stayed in the house.

It’s all about “Independence”.

My parents were like this. Fortunately, I decided to visit them and get a more accurate assessment of “fine.” My Dad died the next day, and I’m so thankful I was there when it happened. Mom never would have been able to cope.

Too pushy.

Every once in a while the fisherman, or woman, falls into the lake.

I get the impression that Elly wants them to move East, very near them (look the place …area… over and like it).

And DON’T call me “dear”! A generic term I do not like. I have a name. “Dear” rubs my fur the wrong way.

That’s the way my Grandmother was. You’d ask her if she needed to go anywhere. She’d reply, if you don’t have anything else to do…

After the burning of the pot holder, it is evident to see which side of the family that Michael and Elizabeth’s stupidity comes from.

I would hate having a stranger in my house 2 days a week, for any reason. Are the old folks supposed to visit with the lady? Does he know what the Lady will be doing? Cooking, cleaning, something else?

After my Dad had passed away and Mom finally retired at age 82, my brother and I hired a lady to come in twice a week to do the heavy housecleaning and lifting. The only problem was that my Mom would clean the entire house before the cleaning lady arrived because she didn’t want the woman to think that she kept an untidy house!

And all Elly really cares about is getting her hands on that pump organ that she can’t even play, just to screw over Phil!

As one who has endured such scenarios more than a half dozen times (which, according to those who chronicle and research such things is more often than not enough to knock the younger doo-gooder for their own loop physically and emotionally), I can say without hesitation that uprooting one family to move cross country for the other (no matter which one of the two makes the move) is counter productive in a number of ways. Wax indignant about it all you want. But until you’ve lived it, don’t pontificate about it.

BC weather comes into it I wonder?

SPOILER ALERT I think they do wind up downsizing to a smaller place in a few months.

Old people are stubborn, I’m old so I know.

Dementia is not comic worthy. Canadian healthcare would recommend terminating their lives. Time to move away form this utopian, leftist screed.