Day 49- Home to a New Home

Red letter day. Kahu gets home. Cashmere, not College Ave. But Christchurch, his home city. It's another grey day and I check in with Pete regarding the laundry joinery. He's chatted with his coffee mate who's informed him that making the laundry will mean producing half a kitchen's worth of cupboard doors. It's dampened his enthusiasm. I'm ok with that as costs keep going up. In fact today's all about the reality of costs to finish the house. I nearly fall off my chair when I talk to Ian the tiler. $30,000 for his jobs. He send through a break down and it's actually good value for money, but much higher than I was budgeting for.
I sit down to calm my nerves then write a list of all the other costs I'm facing. It adds up. I breathe and call my sister. My next step is organising a mortgage to cover this. I'm 60 and not earning a fortune. Reality bites. I drive to College Ave to calm myself but it doesn't work. I'm looking through a different lens.
Another Lance arrives, he's picking up the wood from the old house. His health brings me back to earth. Lung cancer an, morphine and compromised lung capacity after surgery. Clearly one of the people we need to protect from Covid. He loads the wood and I find pine off cuts from the rubbish pile to throw on the trailer. His daughter hops around, happily oblivious to her dad's reduced strength. Lance is exhausted and says he'll have to come back for the rest when he's recovered in a couple of days. I'm in awe of his pluckiness and lack of self-pity. Life is life, and he's getting on with his.
Meanwhile mine goes on. A Zoom meeting but I'm late because a train and an elderly driver slow me down. I'm halfway to the airport now anyway.
Cecile comes with me and gazumps my mother meeting by getting out of the car, which I can't leave because I'm in a drop off only zone, and going to find Kahu. Her brain injury means she doesn't think to offer to wait in the car. She's insisted on coming because I forgot to tell her when Kahu was leaving and she missed that. I embarrass Kahu by running across the road, arms wide open. He's pleased to see me. The bonds are reassuringly strong.
I show him his new half finished home. It's dark but he says,"Nice," several times. He walked out of the old one at the end of winter. It's a stark contrast to this.